Lord of the Crimson
by Periodical
Summary: There exists a Lord of a cursed land; built upon the flesh and bone of man, where the rivers and lakes run red with fresh blood, and creatures born of grotesque and eldritch nature roam in search of meaty sustenance. The Lord hated it, for the land brought nothing but pain to others. So how will he fare in this new world, where none know of The Crimson?
1. Sudden Arrival

"Ugggghhhh..." A man wearing a long sleeve red shirt with pitch black pants and black boots was laid face first across a clearing on the side of a mountain passage, the surrounding area not at all effected by his arrival.

Suddenly, he began to stir, sitting up as the man rustled his messy, crimson hair, dark bags piling underneath his half-lidded red eyes.

"Uggghhh... Where am I?" He asked to no one in particular as he observed his surroundings, noticing that the location he had appeared in was something he has not at all seen back home. But the most prevalent feature that occurred to him...

' _WHERE'S THE CRIMSON?!_ ' The normally stoic man thought in severe distress. As he looked around, he could not at all locate any spec of red from atop the mountain, only seeing the lush, green canopy of the various surrounding forests that stretched on for miles, along with an shimmering ocean surrounding the coastline. There were also a couple villages jutting out from above the forestry, but the elegant castle in the distance to his right was much more eye-catching.

' _This is bad_ ', he kept thinking to himself, ' _If I can't find any crimsified materials soon I'll..._ '

However, the crimson-haired stranger cut himself off, noticing he had a large, red bag with pulsating veins randomly arranged amongst it, a single, blue eyeball looking towards him menacingly. The man looked at it with glee, as one would a friend you haven't seen in years, immediately returning back to his calm persona.

' _Great! Just need some Viscious Powder and then-_ '

As he was about to reach towards the mouth-looking zipper of his bag, he heard a scream of horror come from further up the mountain top.

"AHHHH! HELP!"

Now, whilst the strange man didn't particularly care for helping people in need, he was curious as to what was going on. So with an over dramatic eye-roll, he ran at a speed far faster than a normal human up the obvious rocky path, hoping that he could make it before the 'fun' started.

* * *

"AHHHH! HELP!" The small green scaled dragon girl with brown hair, who looked no older than an infant, screamed in peril as she backed up against an unclimbable wall of the mountain, three humans wearing steel plated armour that shone in the sunlight. All of them wielded broadswords, blocking off any exits the dragonkin may have used to escape.

"Oi! Shut yer trap, ya lil' bitch!" One of them stepped forward and slapped her, sending her towards the ground with a wimper whilst rubbing her now bruised and red cheek. However, the knight seemed amused by all of this, "Heh! Who would 'ave ever thought of a human dominatin' a monsta - a dragonkin no less?"

"Well sir, she is a little 'n..." One of the other knights said with slight regret, as though he didn't think this was right, but the only response he got was from his other, clearly more in agreement, comrade was a playful elbow nudge.

"Aww com on lad! Young or not, her bod would make a fiiiiine play thin', eh?" He offered with a wink, whilst the short dragon girl picked up on his comment and widened her eyes in horror.

"No... No, PLE-" Before she could finish her plea for help however, the knight whom slapped her grabbed the girl by the neck, before binding down the rest of her scaly limbs to the ground with his.

"Hahaha! Good idea lad! We can has some fun wit 'er before we sell 'er off to some other sap for a quick coin," he said with an evil smirk, eyeing the dragon girl's body tastily, "But enough chat! Come on lads! Lets... Indulge ourselves a lil."

That was all the knight needed to say before the his comrades grouped up around the dragonkin's defenceless body, although one of them seemed hesitant at the thought of raping a little girl, monster or not.

"Umm, are ya sure this is a good idea sir?" The two looked at him incredulously, as though he asked something painfully obvious, to which he shrank away slightly, "N-not that I would go against your o-orders or anything, but... Aren't dragons extremely territorial of their possessions an' children? If 'er mother is around, we could get seriously fu-"

"Bah! Enough of yer excuses, boy!" The apparent leader of the small group sneered at him, "Besides, I doubt 'er mother cares about 'er anymore. If she were that protective, would've spotted 'er before we had to chance to even chase the bugga."

Those words appeared to have tugged on the dragonkin's heartstrings, tearing up slightly, indicating the knight was not far off from the truth.

"Which means..." He put his mouth mere inches from the monster girl's ear, "...she's free for the takin'."

He then darted his face towards the nervous guard, flinching at the sudden look, "get the iron chains from the bag. Ya know, the 'enchanted' ones. Even if she's a young'n, it's takin' a lot of force to hold 'er do-"

"Good evening gentlemen. Wonderful weather today, isn't it?"

A sudden, bone-chilling voice interrupted the leader's order, directing all attention towards him, even from the dragon girl, a glint of hope in her eyes at the hopes of the mystery man being her saviour.

However, the knight captain was not so pleased to see his presence interrupt their 'quality time', eyeing up the man's strange clothing, "An' who might you be?" He questioned with suspicion laced in his tone.

"Why, I'm merely a witness to this spectacle I've stumbled across. Hard not to notice with the screams of the little one echoing around for miles," the leader 'tsk'd' at that, "In fact, what are you going to do with her, if I might ask?" The crimson haired man asked in feigned curiosity.

"Hmm?" The more laid-back knight began, "Why, we're gon' rape 'er until she begs fer mercy! Hehehe- OWW!" He answered with no remorse in his tone, that is until her leader smacked him over the back of his head, "WOT WERE THAT FER?!"

"Fer givin' away our plans so easily to a potential enemy!" He answered with anger in his voice, although the stranger simply chuckled at the interactions between them.

"Hehehe, normally I wouldn't plan to stop you, as shows of suffering are quite amusing..." But then he laid his eyes on the dragon girl, her eyes practically begging for mercy with tiny trickles of tears decorating the once dry ground, striking a chord in the usually emotionless man's heart.

' _Damnit, I wasn't planning to save a little girl...'_ he looked at the monster girl's almost pathetic expression again, ' _Argh, Screw it..._ '

"...However," the men grimaced at the word, "I don't take kindly to children being used to fulfil the carnal desires of _pigs_ such as you," his voice and face pure monotone with every word.

Unnerved by the passive-threat of the man, the group of rapists took a step back, suddenly forgetting about the monster girl, giving her the room and strength to escape her possible rapist's grasp. Even though if a dragonkin was very young, their base strength could exceed that of a bodybuilder. The only reason they were able to hold her down was because she had ran out of energy during them chasing her, having regained it during their monologue.

Looking up to her hero with respect in her eyes, the stoic man motioned towards the rocky path that allowed access further up the mountain. Taking the hint, she nodded and ran towards it.

"She's gettin' away!" The leader shouted out loud, irritated by the fact he was intimidated by some guy who wasn't even equipped with a weapon or armour, "Burt, chase after 'er!"

"Yes, sir!" The perverted knight from before, now known as Burt, ran after the girl with broadsword in hand, fully intent on regaining their catch.

"Oh no you don't."

However, the knight was immediately stopped as several fleshy, pink tentacles erupted out from the earth in his path, causing nearby loose stone to shake from the force. Burt almost screamed as he fell on his ass, backing up at a fast pace towards his comrades, who also had their mouths agape in horror.

"W-what the hell is this?!" The captain almost threw up at the sight of the fleshy tendrils, which were reeling back into the mountain like a retractable wall. A light chuckle was the crimson-haired man's response.

"That was _me_. A part of me, at least," The man answered in a passive-aggressive tone, taking a few more steps forward, the event from earlier making him appear even more threatening than before.

Put both under the pressure of his life being threatened and facing a 'human' far more powerful than them, the leader gave in to anger and barked out, "BURT! ATTACK!"

"B-but sir, didn't y-you just se-"

"I know wha' I saw! And I'm _ORDERIN_ ' YOU TO ATTACK!"

Not wanting to add to the captain's wrath, or have it directed towards him, Burt hesitatingly complied and ran towards crimson-haired man, who wasn't even reacting to his presence. Did he want to die? Or perhaps he was underestimating him? Either way, he needed to aim for the killing blow in order to finish this quickly. Perhaps the leader would give him a pay rise if all went well!

Unfortunately for the undertrained shit-for-brains, it did not go well.

As soon as his sword was mere inches away from slitting the stranger's throat, another one of the previously seen tentacles made itself home to the knight's throat, tightening around it and lifting him off the ground, causing him to drop his sword with a loud *CLANK* as it hit the ground.

"Hmm..." The man seemed lost in thought, rubbing his chin, "Even though there is no Crimsified material in this world that I can feel, my abilities are still usable, but with severe limitations to power, range, and other variables. Interesting..."

The stranger then looked up to the soon-to-be corpse's face, his eyes practically rolled back into his head as the lack of oxygen draining his life away, "Whilst I can commend you for following orders like a good attack dog," the tentacle tightened even further, "You were foolish to even think that you could lay a scratch on me."

"Agh... Gggagghgaggghh..." Burt couldn't get any words out as the fleshy appendage was crushing his wind pipe further every second, only fuelling the crimson-haired man's amusement.

"Some great famous last words... Hehehe..." As if to add the icing onto the cake that this man was not human, he opened his eyes, not revealing his normal red ones, but rather golden yellow ones, completely bloodshot, the black pupils constricting so far that they looked like tiny dots, " **farewell, irrelevant foot soldier.** "

At those words, the tentacle jerked upwards so fast, that the 'irrelevant foot soldier''s head, along with his neck, was torn straight off, the body falling forward and in the process, splattering blood all over the man's torso and legs. However, he acted as though it was an everyday occurrence, not even batting an eye at his ruined clothes.

The now clearly dead knight's group, however, did mind. A lot, if the nervous one scattering today's lunch all over the earth had anything to say about it.

"H-h-how? How is this happening?! M-male monsters don't exist!" The leader attempted to be in denial, however the proof was there, in the form of his comrade's lifeless body creating an ever-growing blood pool at where his neck formerly was.

"Oh?" This confirmed the stoic man's suspicions, he was not in Terraria anymore. There are as many male monsters as there are female back home, whilst apparently here there are only females. Then... How did they reproduce? Were they asexual and didn't need a mate to create offspring? Or perhaps...

...Oh. Yeah, that answer makes _so_ much more sense now.

Deciding that it was best to learn about this brand new world at a later date, the stranger thought he might as well get this over with, "So, any last words before I kill you both?"

"W-what?" The leader seemed taken aback by the rather blunt question, but then soaked it in and realised what situation he was in, "No... N-no! Please, I don't wanna die!" The knight shoved his also panicking comrade forward in a hurry, "Take Clancy instead! Please, s-spare me!"

"Wait, wh-" was all recently-named Clancy could get out before a tentacle shot through his neck, penetrating it so far that it came out the other end.

And another corpse added to the blood pool.

Thinking that the man - no, this _monster_ \- had accepted his seemingly remorseless sacrifice of a fellow warrior in arms, the man hid a slight smile of hope behind his helmet, "S-so you killed Clancy instead o' me, right? You're gonna l-lemme go, r-right?"

"..."

"..."

"..heh. Hehehe... **HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!** " The monster broke out of his stoic demeanor, going into full out laughter as held his stomach tightly. The knight took offense to this action.

"W-what's so damn funny?!"

"Hehe... Sorry, it's just, heh, That's a grovel for mercy I haven't heard of in a while. It just shows how undeserving you are of your life," He spat the last words in a venom so toxic the knight could practically feel it seep in through his armour.

Several tentacles then appeared out from the ground, surrounding the leader the same way they did to the dragonkin, "Okay, that's enough now, this is taking too long."

Giving in to the pressure of his life nearing his end, the knight went to his knees in a praying position for a last ditch effort, "PLEASE! I PROMISE, I'LL NEVA SEXUALLY ASSAULT ANYONE AGAIN! JUST LEMME LI-"

" **Quiet** ," The man's voice reverberated around the mountain like surround sound, shutting up the leader pleas for mercy, "I'm bored of seeing you beg at my feet. And since you're the leader of your ragtag bunch of child-rapists..."

The tentacles began to grow sharp, fleshy spikes at their pointed ends, "I'll make your torture far more **exciting** than their's was."

And soon, unholy shrieks of pure suffering filled the air.

Along with the sound of something tearing that _shouldn't_ be teared.

* * *

The dragonkin was scared.

No longer for her own purity (not that it would matter eventually) and life, but for the group of knights she had encountered.

Whilst she obviously knew what their intentions were, and didn't have a favourable opinion of them for attempting it, she doesn't think they deserved to die. Punished, yes. Jailed, absolutely. But not tortured and then killed. Even though she was currently huddled behind a boulder that covered her field of vision from the one-sided onslaught, that did not mean she wasn't out of earshot.

The girl could understand why he would kill all of them, but that did not give her supposed hero an excuse to do it. If he was much stronger than them, why didn't he let them go and see them as a waste of time?

"Hey."

Speak of the devil, and he shall come.

"AHHHH!" She jumped in surprise at the sudden greeting, landing on her butt in the process. Looking up, the dragonkin noticed her saviour with the same emotionless expression as before, but with... Possibly over a litre of blood covering his clothes.

"Sorry," he seemed embarrassed to have scared a little girl simply with a small greeting, avoiding eye contact, "Just wanted to make sure that you were alright," he offered his hand to pick her up.

"Huh? Oh, right," she took the hand, using the man's support to pick herself up, "Yeah, I'm fine. Although, it would've been much worse had you not arrived."

"I can tell," he seemed to stare back at the carnage the stranger caused, a slight glare in the look. Soon after, he noticed the short dragon girl's tail swinging back and forth behind her, the person in question giving him a quizzical look, "If you don't mind, what species of monster are you? Never seen your type from where I'm from."

"Huh? Really? Well, I'm a dragonkin, a humanoid dragon species. My name's Granberia by the way!" She gave the man a proud smile, "And what monster are you?"

"Hmm?" His eyes widened slightly, but it was unnoticeable to his companion, "What makes you think I'm a mon-"

"I saw the... t-tentacles, whilst I was running."

"... _Oh_ ," the crimson-haired man hoped to keep this a secret in a world with no male monsters, but no sense in denying something clearly obvious, "Well, I don't exactly know. I guess you could call me the lord of all things fleshy and bloody? One of the many 'nicknames' the humans gave me back home," He responded with a shrug.

"Oh... Um, I don't really know a monster like that. Much less, a male one," Granberia seemed to blush slightly at the fact, but noticed something he said that made her stare in curiosity, "Wait, you called yourself a lord. Does that mean you're a king monster?"

"Yeah yeah, I guess," the man waved off her question lazily, clearly not wanting to reveal anything more about himself, "Anyways, enough about me," he gestured towards the path that spiralled to the peak of the mountain, "is there anything special at the top of this mountain?"

"'Mountain'? This is a volcano Mister! Gold Volcano to be exact."

...Oh. That's why there was _smoke_ coming out from the top.

"Rephrase that. Is there anything special at the top of this volcano?"

"Well, there is a cave entrance into the volcano, where the legendary fire spirit, 'Salamander' lives," Granberia informed.

Now this peaked the crimson-haired man's interests. A spirit of the fire element, eh? Perhaps he could obtain valuable information from someone so powerful about the world he was stuck in. After all, this spirit was the closest source of info he had, not that he knew of any others.

"Hmm. Guess we'll go in there then, perhaps I can drop you off with her or something until your mother drops by," He tried to be helpful, but that seemingly lowered the dragonkin's spirits, to which the crimson-haired man immediately noticed, "Hmm? Did I say something wrong?"

"Well, um... You see, my mother abandoned me when I was... Just a baby," she began tearing up again, "I've had to take care of myself for sometime now. However," she looked back up to the man, small tears trailing down her still bruised cheeks, "Everyone always attacked me or chased me off. So, I've had to live off of any scraps people left behind, or steal from campsites when they were asle-"

Suddenly, she was caught in a bear hug from the man, whom was currently tearing up as well, however his expression unchanging. Whilst showing no reaction to murdering man and monster alike, children would always hold a soft spot in the stranger's heart.

"To have lived like this, by yourself, without a family to care for you for so long..." He looked deeply into the young dragonkin's eyes, "...It makes me feel sad that anyone would neglect someone as adorable as you~" bloodied hands rubbed delicate cheeks as he said this, like an over affectionate grandma with their grandchildren.

"Hrrk!" The little girl was blushing furiously now, causing her to nearly fall over in embarrassment. However, this only worried her companion.

"Are you okay?" He began to pick her up by the waist, "Do you want me to carry you? Must have been exhausting trying to escape from those disgusting excuses for knights."

It was true, her legs were still sore from all the running, so Granberia decided to play a little more like a 'damsel in distress', just this once.

"Umm... Yeah, thanks," She replied, the man lifting her over his shoulders, wrapping her scaly, dragon-like legs around his arms, along with her petite chest pressed into the back of his head, but the crimson-haired man either didn't notice or didn't care.

"Oh and also, my name's Brian," he began walking up the volcano path, "Just thought I'd tell you, since you gave me yours."

"Ah. Well, thanks for dealing with those guys back there Mister Brian!" She cheerfully exclaimed, but then appeared distraught, "But did you... have to kill them?"

"Yes," Was his straight forward reply.

"But why?"

"Because they were a prime example of scum of the world; wastes of oxygen and resources, etcetera etcetera."

"B-but one of them was rather hesitant to-"

"Look, Granberia," he turned to face her, "I understand you don't like the strong preying on the weak. I could tell that the moment we started conversing, and I respect that. However," his eyes turned yellow and bloodshot again, "If they had succeeded, would you still like for them to keep on living? To rape even more girls? Hell, they could've been apart of a mass sex slave chain for all you know! It's best to not take any chances."

Granberia understood where Brian was coming from, but still... "The hesitant one might have been nice...?"

"He sealed his fate the moment he decided it was a good idea to group himself up with rapists. The least I did was make his death quick," his eyes returned back to their deadly red colour, "Enough about that now. What's done is done."

"Yeah... I guess," Granberia solemnly agreed.

After the little conversation, the two travelled up the volcano in silence, Brian observing the horizon in the distance as though searching for something, cursing under his breath as he looked away. Granberia, however, decided to get a good look at the male monster, getting able to feel a good grasp of his slightly muscular body from the way she was carried, along with a... Very odd looking bag that was hunched over the crimson-haired man's shoulder, using the same bloody colour scheme as his apparel. The Dragonkin also noticed how much paler he was than before. Perhaps, even as a male, he needed semen to survive? After all, monsters did begin to show various signs of hunger, both visibly and in their actions, for semen if they were really starving for it. Perhaps she could... help him get some? He did have his own penis...

"We're here," Brian suddenly declared, facing towards the a deep cave entrance that went downwards, the faint, orange glow of magma seeping outside, "Why are you blushing?" He asked bluntly when the monster turned to face his companion.

"Eh?" The girl in question snapped out of her lewd thoughts, jumping off of the man in embarrassment, "N-no reason!"

"...Well, whatever. We've arrived, so now all we need to do is find this Salamander and you'l hopefully find someone who'll take you in," Brian began walking towards the cave entrance, motioning for the flustered dragonkin to follow after him.

"B-but what will you do then? Salamander is only known to help warriors who can best her in combat, or at least prove their worth to her," she chimed in, although it didn't seem to waver the male monster's confidence.

"Then I'll just have to try my be- BLAAARGH!" Suddenly, Brian threw up a large amount of blood onto the rugged earth as well as a portion of his already bloodied shirt, collapsing on to all fours. His dragonkin companion went to his side in obvious worry, eyes widened at the sudden damage to his health.

"BRIAN! What's wrong?!" She shouted in distress, shaking the man's shoulder for a response.

"Oh... How could I... Have forgotten...? Hehehe... Guess I... got too distracted... by the slaughter... eariler..." He began crawling towards the cave entrance, still determined on following his objective. Granberia, however, wouldn't have any of it.

"No! You need to sit down and rest! There's obviously something wrong with you!"

He was becoming motionless, eyes slowly closing, "Damnit... shit... fuck..."

"B-Brian? No, PLEASE DON'T DIE!" She practically begged in desperation of not wanting to be alone again, but it fell upon deaf ears as her friend's head made a firm collision against the hard rock beneath him.

The last thing he saw was what appeared to be the figure of an orange woman stalking towards them inside a trail of a pool of lava.

* * *

 _"Why did you bring me outside the safety and comfort of my cave again?" Brian asked the short girl beside him, the two sitting on the edge of a cliff made out of veiny, red stone with a layer of crimson grass and dirt underneath where they were sat, dangling their legs on the cliff edge._

 _The girl in question was wearing an odd choice of apparel for a cold night, consisting of a white dress with a frilly blue skirt, her long white hair blown back by the dirty wind. She also had bright red, thigh-length stockings with black shoes._

 _Currently, this girl was staring into the night sky with a pair of brown binoculars, which was a deep red colour thanks to the environmental effects of the crimson, although she could see the bright stars shine through the misty redness perfectly, some varying in size and others in colour. To her it was a beautiful sight to behold._

 _But to Brian... well, it was safe to say he was enduring it for her sake._

 _She then responded, "Well... It's just, I know how lonely you can get at times, what with-"_

 _"Almost everything in existence hating me based on the fact that I 'run' a 'kingdom' full of savages and mutated sacks of walking, rotting flesh? Oh yeah! That," He interrupted with an over exaggerated eye roll, to which the girl pouted adorably in irritation._

 _"You don't have to put yourself down so low like that," she lowered the binoculars and turned to face the crimson-haired monster, revealing her deep blue... eye. Her left one was covered by a pitch black eyepatch, "As your sister, I have to take the caring and responsible role and make sure you don't raze another human village to the ground, simply because 'they were too close to the border', or 'they attempted to destroy my prized artifacts'," the snow-haired girl attempted to mimic her apparent brother's voice, but it came out sounding cute and adorable._

 _Unable to argue with the breakdown of his anger fits, he responded, "Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. But... I can't help it!" He suddenly jerked his head to the side away from her, the girl looking over in concern, "They treat us like shit! Not just me, not just brother, any creature that walks either my Crimson or his Corrupted lands, but monsters as a whole! And the fact that you seek peace with those vile humans, only to have them relentlessly assault you and your fellow Demon Eyes-"_

 _Interrupting another one of Brian's rants, the little girl wrapped her arms around the Crimson Lord tightly, whom responded reluctantly in the same way to the gesture shortly after, "I... I know peace will be hard to come by, and there will be groups of both monsters and humans who don't agree with my beliefs..." She looked up to him with a fiery determination in her eyes, "But if I don't try, then who will? For the sake of the survival of monsters and humans, we need peace."_

 _For a while, Brian just stared half-lidded into his sister's eyes, her expression of confidence never wavering, before he broke into a light chuckle, "It's nice to have someone like you looking out for me, little sis. I can't stand to argue with you when you pull out such a cute look on me," the tension wore off as the crimson-haired man ruffled the girl's snowy hair, messing it up and causing her to get flustered. Rarely did he ever show such affection to anyone apart from her, but even that was rare._

 _"O-oi!" She got up to her feet whilst putting her hair back into place, her brother chuckling at the sibling interaction. "W-well, whatever. I came to hang out with you all night until dawn, and that's what we're gonna do!" She pumped her fist into the air in excitement._

 _"Oh? And do tell what are we gonna do?" Brian narrowed his eyes in suspicion, "It better not involve that weirdo friend of yours, Sara. I swear, whenever I go near that dungeon place of hers, I feel like the souls of the damned crawling up my back," He shivered in genuine fear of the unholy grounds. He was not in the mood for having a Looney Tune-like chase scene with Dungeon Guardians again. Although, if it were inside his place of power, that death trap of a building would've been torn down years ago._

 _His sister, too, also shared the sentiment, shivering slightly, "Y-yeah, I understand what you mean, but she's lonely like you are, you know? Feel like she... needs a friend other than bones and spirits..." the snow-haired girl looked downtrodden again, which in turn made Brian upset too._

 _'_ Too kind for her own good, eh? _' He decided it would be best to start the fun and games now, "Well, what did you have in mind then?"_

 _She immediately perked up, "I was thinking we could go for a flight! Truly appreciate the cold, night time air and bask in the shine of the moon!"_

 _"Hmm..." The make monster rubbed his chin in thought, before giving out his answer with a rare smile, "Fine. If it makes you happy, I'll do it. Let's just head back to my cave and grab a Crimson Heart first, need it to fly 'n all."_

 _"Yay!" She literally jumped in joy, intertwining her her arm with her brother's before walking into the direction of a large, circular dome of bloody red stone, sticking out unnaturally in the surface of the crimson field._

 _"I love you, Brian," she held him closer._

 _"...I love you too, Ellen."_

* * *

"Ell...en..." Brian moaned as he awoke from slumber, feeling the searing hot rock beneath his lain down body, although it didn't dangerously effect him as it should. In facf, he found it to be rather soothing and caring, almost like... something was trying to keep him alive.

In fact, what happened earlier? Ah yes, dying an undignified death, the most pitiful and pathetic way to die for a monster of his specific 'curse'.

Staying away from crimsified materials for too long.

Honestly, he'd have rather died fighting in a battle that involved his brother, an epic war between Corruption and Crimson, where only one could make it out alive and reign on top to bring in a new era of chaos and destruction to the humans!

But instead, Fate decided to send him to an unknown location where he couldn't even sense any form of Crimson any where in the world.

What luck.

Although, the male monster guessed he deserved it, after all of the pain and suffering he delivered to both humans and monsters alike, it was only a matter of time before Karma kicked into full overdrive and ran him out of his home. He could only hope Ellen, known as the Eye of Cthulhu amongst both fear-ridden humans and her clan, was faring any better. She was possibly the nicest, whilst also most naive, person in the world.

Anyway, back to the more important matter at hand.

Death.

Brian couldn't feel anything, nor move any part of his body other than his head, searching the room he was placed in with what little field of vision he had. Now that he thought about it, it was less of a room and more like a large natural underground space with various pools of lava decorating the outskirts like a moat. It gave him the nostalgia that his home had back in The Crimson, except prettier with the stalagmites and stalactites surrounding him like the jaw of a shark.

Damn, he was homesick.

But how did he get here? Perhaps Granberia brought him here because she thought she could save the Crimson Lord? Whilst yes, he was currently still alive, he was almost completely disabled, and soon would die. Honestly, she was almost as stubborn as Ellen.

"Oh? You're awake."

Brian slowly moved his head towards the direction of the voice, careful not cause himself any further harm. Too his side, how he didn't notice earlier, was the floating figure of a brown-skinned woman, red eyes and a white tattoo around her stomach.

The most eye-catching feature, however, was her hair.

Orange flames danced around where the girl's hair should be, flickering every so often which lightened up the area around them. Some of her 'hair' fell down to her side in the shape of a dragon with it's maw open, whilst the rest dissipated into the air.

She was also not wearing any clothes, but Brian was too busy slowly dying to care.

The two stared at each other, waiting for the other to carry on the conversation. Noticing his extremely damaged state, she decided to speak up, "You look pretty dead there."

' _How charming,_ ' he sarcastically thought about her casual bluntness to his situation, clearly not in the mood from the eye roll he gave the mysterious lady.

Which she took full notice of and nervously giggled, "Hehehe, sorry. Just don't know what to say in these situations," the fire-haired girl then looked over to somewhere else in the cave that was outside Brian's field of vision, "Granberia's worried about you, ya know?"

Ah, that must be how he got here. For someone so young, the dragonkin was as tough as nails, something he could really appreciate. But the way she addressed her by her first name as though the two were best buddies already, did the two know each other? Perhaps this lady used to know Graberia's mother before she-

Wait a minute. Lives in a volcano... Hair literally made of fire... This must be the legendary fire spirit, Salamander that the young dragon girl informed him of. Honestly, for someone with such a vast intelligence that it would put scholars who spent their entire life studying to shame, Brian was awfully oblivious to obvious facts at times.

He then noticed his bag by his side, underneath Salamander's floating body, still staring at him with the now bloodshot blue eye. That's when yet another figurative face palm slapped Brian dead centre in the face, he always kept Vicious Powder with him for life-threatening emergencies like these.

"In... bag.." He began, looking at the fire spirit with pleading eyes, "Red... pouch..."

"Hmm?" She picked tried to pick up on what he was saying, "You want me to stick my hand in that?" She gestured disgustingly towards the pulsating bag, responding by menacingly staring towards her, which did not help it's case, "But it looks so creepy!"

For a spirit of flames, one of the most destructive and deadliest elements, she sure was acting childish about this, "Red... pouch... please..." The Crimson Lord's skin tone was darkening by the second now, almost as though it was rotting.

Whilst she personally did not care for the man, Salamander did find the fact that he was a male monster (as Granberia informed her) intriguing, and slightly enticing. It would also be a shame to see the little one depressed that the one whom saved her from a terrible fate died.

So, she worked up the nerve and attempted to put her hand inside the mouth-like opening of the bag. It was almost like the container had a mind of it's own, what with the large eye on it's side staring suspiciously at the fire spirit, before ultimately deciding that she may access it's contents.

Surprisingly, however, the inside felt warm and velvety, granting a soothing feeling to her skin. As Salamander dipped her hand further inside, she felt the round, squash-able shape of a pouch full of powder, before grabbing the tied end of it and yanking it out of the bag. Honestly, she expected this strange man to have more on him than a single pouch, but now was not the time to ponder over this.

She hovered the small pouch above the man's face, eliciting a small smile from him in return, "Pour... over... stone..."

"Are you sure? Don't you need to, I don't know, eat it or som-"

"Stone..." Brian repeated, careful not to strain himself too hard otherwise risk a coughing fit.

Salamander seemed confused by this, but otherwise complied, pouring the red dust onto the stoney floor of the volcanic cave.

What happened next she did not expect.

As soon as the dust made contact with the stone floor, it began to turn a veiny red colour, almost flesh-like in appearance, spreading slightly to more stone within it's vicinity before the spread slowed down to a stop.

' _W-what kind of magic is this...?_ ' In all of the eternity of her life, Salamander had never seen anything as intimidating as this, almost like the fleshy stone was alive, radiating a polluted, red darkness in the air that was ultimately harmless and just a cosmetic affect, however it didn't seem that way. It even pulsated like veins! And apparently this man needed it to survive...?

Speaking of Brian, he was currently trying to roll off of the bed onto his most precious resource that felt like he had been an eternity without, struggling a few times, but eventually made a solid landing onto the crimstone.

With his face.

"Ooohh..." Salamander cringed, "Are you okay?" She asked concerned, when suddenly the man took in a massive breath.

"HUUAAAAAAAHH!" Brian breathed in deeply, absorbing all of the 'toxins' that were floating around the crimsified stone, as well as returning the stone back to it's original colour and texture, as though it had never been crimsified in the first place. Soon, his skin regained it's colour, and the Crimson Lord was able to get back up to his feet, clutching one knee with his hand.

"Hah... haaaah... note to self; carry crimstone with me wherever I go..."

"Um, excuse me?"

Brian redirected his attention to the fire spirit who appeared to be studying him all over, once glancing at his crotch but the man just thought it was an unfamiliar custom at this point.

"Hmm? Oh yeah," He held his hand out out towards Salamander, offering a handshake, "Thanks for saving my life."

The fire spirit smiled whilst accepting the offer, "No problem, however it was a very..." She narrowed her eyes in suspicion, "peculiar method of avoiding death. In fact, why were you dying? And why did you need that... Horrifying substance to live?"

Whilst Brian would love to share information about his world, as well as obtain some about hers, he was more worried for the little dragonkin whom he travelled with, "We'll talk about my situation later. For now, where's Granberia?"

"Oooohh..." She seemed to appear sad at the topic. What happened to her? "Well, you see, one of the Lava Girls of this volcano heard her yell your name. She was really hungry and wanted your semen."

"My... semen?" Brian was slightly lost for words at that. Sure, he knew this world was pretty fucked up by now, but this really takes the cake. Apparently this girl needed his semen to survive? What kind of god would create creatures who need such a food source?

"Yes, your semen. I assume this means you've never come across monsters like us before?" She asked with a slight tease. For someone who was an apparent monster them self, he seemed to know very little about them.

"No, I haven't. Where I come from, monsters are ruthless killing machines whom can only barely tolerate each other. They attempt to kill any human on sight."

"Oh..." Salamander seemed a little surprised at this revelation, "they don't need semen?"

"No."

"...Do you nee-"

"No." He answered with a slight glare, causing her to giggle slightly.

"Hehehe, sorry. Anyway, where was I?" The fire spirit continued the story, "Once the Lava Girl found you two, she attempted to take you an-"

"Jerk me off, yes, pretty obvious."

"...Yes. No more interruptions please," She seemed a little irritated, but soon returned to her calm expression, "Anyway, Granberia stood her ground valiantly, able to get her to leave. Honestly, for such a little one, she sure is strong."

That sealed the deal for Brian; this dragonkin would make a fine warrior, both in strength and loyalty. To be honest, the Crimson Lord expected Granberia to run away off to find Salamander and leave him for dead like he wished, but he guessed he assumed wrong.

"However," the fire spirit began, "She did not suffer without injuries and severe burns; if dragon-kin weren't naturally immune to lava, her loss would've been inevitable. It will take a while for her to completely heal. Good thing I found you two before it got even worse."

"Ah," to be honest he should've expected this. Even an infant dragon had their limits, of course, "Where is she resting? I think I can help her."

"Oh? With more of your 'magic'?" She raised an eyebrow in slight discomfort, however Brian quickly shot down her suspicions.

"Relax, it only works on me. Whilst I could make her... 'different', it wouldn't heal her," he dipped his hand into the bag and pulled out a glass bottle with a yellow ring around the base, a fizzy red liquid pooling inside.

"Huh?!" Salamander said, shocked, "When I put my hand in there, all I felt was a single pouch!"

"My bag only let's people take out what I want them to take. In other words," the Crimson Lord moved his head so it was a few inches away from hers, "...maaaaaaaaagiiiiiiiic." He said sarcastically whilst shaking his hands, maintaining a monotone expression.

"...Not funny," she clearly wasn't amused.

"Regardless, we're getting off topic. Mind showing me where she rests?"

"Yeah yeah, follow me," Salamander began floating towards a rock formation similar to where Brian had been previously resting, before the two came upon a stony bed with the sleeping form of Granberia laid down on it, several scorch marks along with bruises and cuts to which Brian 'tsk'd' at with a frown.

"Poor little girl..." The Crimson Lord said affectionately, caressing the dragonkin's brown hair like you would a puppy.

"You must really like children, huh?" Salamander asked, as it just seemed unusual for someone so menacing as to need flesh-like stone to survive, as well as having a living bag (that didn't seem to like her very much), to show such compassion for a child he's been with for little more than half an hour.

"Kids, I believe, are life's greatest joy. They carry the future on their backs, and have the potential to become anything, like a mold of clay perhaps."

"Hmm, good point. Is that all?"

"Well, the main reason is because I find them so damn adorable~"

"..." The fire spirit just stared at him.

"...What?"

"...You're not a lolicon are yo-"

"AAAANNNNYYway," he interrupted on purpose as to not answer the question, but Salamander just shot him a knowing smirk, "Just need to pour this drink down her mouth and the wounds should heal instantly."

"Really? I've heard of healing potions before, but never of this caliber," she rubbed her chin in thought.

"Hmm? Back home, almost everyone has access to these."

"R-really?!"

"Yes, I can understand your surprise, but there is a... side effect to excessive use."

"Such as?"

"Potion Sickness. Honestly, it'll do more harm than the wounds could have. Internally, at least," Well, it was understandable. Something as amazing as to instantly heal any damage to the body, no matter how badly damaged, and almost everyone had them? There was sure to be some disadvantages, "Now, bottoms up Granberia."

Pouring the fizzy liquid down the little dragon girl's throat, her body subconsciously gulped it down, emptying the bottle. After a few seconds of waiting, Granberia's burns and cuts disappeared, returning her smooth yellow hide back to normal, the scratches and chips on her scales also repairing themselves, before the dragonkin looked as though she had never been injured in the first place.

"Whoa..." He wasn't kidding. If it weren't for this side effect, people could remain invincible with this kind of medicine.

"There, she should stay asleep for a couple hours at most. Now," Brian turned his head autonomously towards the floating fire spirit, "I desire information."

Now she was smirking. Cockily.

"Oh, I know."

"Hmm?" The Crimson Lord rose an eyebrow at the little minx.

"Little Granberia told me when she carried you here, saying that her friend 'needed help looking for something'. Of course, I put her to sleep after she was done ranting; kid's tough, but needed rest."

"...I see." For some reason, this little dragonkin was more inclined to help him out than he thought. ' _Must be due to lack of companionship; sees me as a close friend already._ '

"And yes, I'm willing to help you!" She shot him a large grin, although it wasn't one of friendliness.

It was one of challenge, arrogance even.

"...If?" He crossed his arms defensively.

"Correct! If..." she gestured to the remainder of the large underground chasm behind them, the large moat of magma giving the various stalagmites stalking the outskirts of the area a menacing glow, whilst stalactites hung ominously down from the cavern ceiling, some even combined to create spire-like pillars, "...you defeat me in a duel!"

'Shit. Saw it coming, but shit,' Brian had almost no power left after nearly dying; the crimstone he face-planted into was in short supply, only having two bags of the life-nourishing dust left. He really needed to conserve his dwindling life support, as each crimson pouch only lasts a couple days, even less if he exerted his powers here.

He needed to find Vicious Mushrooms ASAP. Either that, or locate a Crimson Biome, but that seemed next to impossible given his bullshit situation of being in an entirely different world. Waiting for one to spread via dust would be risky and time consuming; he could die before any mushrooms even sprout.

' _Guess I'll have to go melee for this one,_ ' he thought with a sigh. Whilst he wasn't terrible with close-combat weaponry, he definitely wasn't the best. Magic was his strong suit.

"Still waiting for an answerrrrr~" Salamander's mocking tone cut through his train of thought, bringing him back to reality to see her laying on her hair as though it's a magic carpet, wearing a cocky smirk.

He didn't appreciate that laid back attitude, responding in kind with a narrow-eyed glare, "Yes, I accept your proposal." The spirit's smirk grew even wider at the response, only angering Brian even further.

"Good. Now, victory conditions~!" Salamander pointed her hand towards the Crimson Lord's face, "You win if you manage to hit me once!" And then pointed to herself, "And I win if I fully defeat you!"

"...Are you mocking me?" He finally let venom seep out into his voice. He hated being underestimated in a battle, especially by someone who deemed themselves greater than everyone. 'Narcissists' he thinks they were called.

"Hey, relax!" The fire spirit raised her hands in an effort to calm him down once she realised she pushed his buttons unintentionally, also slightly panicky in her tone.

' _Guess he doesn't like being seen as weak, eh?_ ', "Fine, how bout you give me your proposal then?"

"Even duel; I win by beating you. Vice versa," Brian replied immediately, crossing his arms as though to send the message across that it was not up for debate.

However, his fellow fighter was not too keen on the idea.

"E-eh? Are you sure? I mean, All-powerful 'Spirit of the Element of Fire' here! I'm not just some random slime you can encounter in a forest!"

It wasn't as though she was being arrogant (okmaybealittle); Salamander just wanted to make it fair for both parties. After all, no monster or human who has challenged her has even been able to scratch her. Except for that one man... the man who slew the tyrannical 8th Monster Lord...

But that was in the past. No one has yet to reach up to his standards, and whilst little Granberia provides raw potential that intrigues her, she has yet to get a read on the Crimson-haired man. He was on Death's door just five minutes ago! She thought she was doing him a favour by providing a handicap.

Apparently however, he didn't see the kindness in her offer.

"I'm very sure; after all, I'm neither human, nor an ordinary monster myself." The Crimson Lord responded in equal confidence, causing Salamander to raise an eyebrow at the latter claim.

"Hmm... Very well," She began hovering over to her side of the cavern for their fight, closing her eyes in a relaxed expression, "Don't say I didn't warn you!"

Oh hohoooo... Don't worry..." He reached towards his signature bag, before beginning to pull out something that definitely should not be able to fit inside of it.

The bag was even making choking sounds.

"...Don't say _I_ didn't warn _you_ , more like."

Once she reached her self-designated position, she opened her eyes, only to open them even wider once she laid her eyes over towards her opponent.

' _He certainly didn't have that with him before, right?_ '

Brian was wielding what appeared to be a spear-like weapon in one hand, but it had a long serrated blade along the edge of the sharpened pike, and on the opposite end was a rugged hook.

The most startling feature however, was that the colour scheme reminded her exactly of the flesh-like stone was a witness to earlier; bloody red veins pulsated along the blade and hook, whilst from the bottom of the pole to the pike was eerily pitch black.

Overall, Salamander got the impression she did _not_ want to get touched by it.

Too bad Brian was _far_ too determined to make sure she did.

"R-ready?!" The Fire Spirit shouted out once she snapped out of her stupor, however still eyeing the weapon wearily.

"Yes!" The Crimson Lord returned whilst aiming his weapon point-first towards his opponent, rushing towards her at inhuman speeds.

A clash between Fire and Crimson has begun.


	2. A Dance of Fire and Flesh

To say it was a duel between the rulers of respective realms of power would be an overstatement.

Mainly due to Brian getting his ass kicked within the first three seconds of the fight, torrents of fire being launched at him from every angle as he persevered in his mad dash towards the Fire Spirit, his Crimson halberd still held firmly in his right hand.

Honestly, it may not have been such a good idea to engage someone as powerful as the personification of fire to a one-on-one duel, and whilst it normally would not be so trifling to utterly destroy anyone in his way, Brian began to truly feel the results of the lack of Crimson powering him up and filling him with vigour.

For one, he has to fully rely on physical attacks; he doesn't use pure Mana like most monsters and all humans back home, as the dark magic he was able to use from Crimsified materials was his only link to such powerful ranged arts.

All he had was in his bag; a lovely great sword which he still had yet to clean called the _Blood Butcherer_ , a spiked flail with great bone-crushing power he named _The Meatball_...

And what he was using right now to shield his eyes from being melted by flames, his halberd referred to as _The Rotted Fork_.

He was really going for the 'gore theme' in his armoury.

There was also a staff that allowed him to tap further into the chaotic strength of his land, the _Crimson Rod_ , but as before mentioned, he couldn't use it due to already explained reasons.

So yeah, he needed to get up close to Salamander so she has little chance to cast flames, whilst also maintaining some distance to avoid surprise explosions and the like, so he figured the long reach of a halberd was the best choice. There was also The Meatball, but he needed to keep full control of the situation here; he generally used the flail when sweeping through a large crowd with little care.

But here, he needed to be very careful against someone who was probably seen as a 'big boss' in the local area.

Wanton destruction of the underground cavern would also be preferably avoided.

After managing to dodge most of the blasts of searing heat, Brian made a large horizontal sweep in front of him, only to be easily dodged by the Spirit via dashing backwards. The Crimson Lord followed up with a vertical smash into the ground, spewing rock out from the newly formed crater due to the sheer power behind the attack, briefly blinding Salamander for a second.

However, that was all Brian needed to sweep the hooked-edge of the halberd into her leg - "Agh!" - using the continued momentum of the strike to swivel her around in a three-sixty spin, before smashing her into the ground.

Now, whilst such an attack would incapacitate, and possibly kill, most unprepared opponents, the attack appeared to do very little damage to the Spirit of Flame once the dust cleared, much to Brian's shock.

There was only a single punctured hole decorating the once flawless brown skin of the Spirit, flame appearing to dance around it, acting like a bandage.

Salamander smirked up to him, speaking up in an impressed tone, "Well, didn't expect that from someone who was on the edge of death a few minutes ago. However..." Her voice took a serious edge as fire began to spew out from her at an uncontrollable rate, the volcano itself sounding as if it was on the verge of erupting, "...I'm just getting _started_ ~"

"Hu-?"

Pain.

Scorching, _brutal_ pain.

The Spirit of Fire was also well known as a master of the martial arts in the monster and human community, combining pyromancy with well calculated and performed kicks and punches, never once giving Brian the chance to escape her combos nor gain any footing, making him essentially a flesh-based punching bag. No wonder many came to seek to be trained by her.

Truly, she was a terrifying force of nature; literally and figuratively.

And he had underestimated her.

After a few more seconds of enduring his skin getting blistered in every possible location of his body, she stopped before suddenly, the fire that was constantly excreting out of her skin began to form into a miniature sun above her head, whilst Brian could do nothing but just stare at the ever-grinning Spirit's face in fear/awe, his senses still overloaded from the earlier beat down. It was a miracle he could even stand.

The fireball soon stopped growing. Then the Spirit jumped an astounding height above her creation, almost reaching the stalactites that were still trembling due to the pure pressure of power from the woman.

She suddenly shot towards the dense ball of flame, which in turn was in the direction of... _oh no_...

' _SHIIIIIITTT! MOVE BODY!_ '

Brian was utterly fucked; with his body still shaking from getting flame-fisted and kicked in every single nerve, movement was impossible.

All he could do was brace himself and hopefully survive.

"CHAOS! FIRE! _ERUPTIOOOOON_!" The Fire Spirit shouted at the top of her breath in utter excitement, before her fist made impact with the orb.

' _What a cheesy-ass move na-_ '

Then all hell broke loose.

A beam of pure blue flame shot out towards Brian at unfathomable speeds, giving him no time to react as the fire swept him up in its sweet embrace, along with a many meter radius around the collision point.

He was fairly certain that he heard the cavern ceiling increase in height as well, judging from the sounds of structural collapse echoing throughout inside the volcano.

The concentrated incineration carried on for a few more seconds, before there was just silence.

Dust covered up most of the surrounding area from observation, whilst what could be seen was in complete disarray; many of the beautiful spires of rock had been reduced back to their base form of unrecognisable rubble, whilst various craters had developed along the cavern floor which left it uneven and ragged. Some lava pools had even increased in volume somehow, most likely due to the irresponsible power outage of the Fire Spirit.

Speaking of Salamander, she was currently in a semi-exhausted state; her cheeks heavily flushed as sweat dripped down her tan skin, whilst panting softly in an effort to recover as she stretched her arms.

' _Jeez, I haven't put that much effort into my fights since Heinrich! This guy really gets me fired up!_ ' She then stared towards where her fellow fighter used to be, only finding a large cloud of dust covering up the opposite end of the cavern, along with a giant trail of dug-up earth, that could have been mistaken to belong to a meteorite if they weren't underground.

She then smiled in a confident manner, ' _Told the guy he was doomed in the beginning... Ah well, guess I'll still help him out; Since he helped me stretch my legs!_ ' The Fire Spirit then willed flames to sweep away the dust in front of her, so as to see the Crimson Lord's face.

What she saw instead was _half_ of his face. Literally.

Stuck instead a body-shaped crater in the scorch earthen wall of the cavern was a corpse, charred up to the head in crusted over black skin, clothes burnt off and hair singed down to nothing.

The worst part as aforementioned was the most eye-catching however, as half of the body was turned to ash, vital organs and blood sloshing out of the open chasm in his torso as though on the verge of falling out, the left leg and arm the only not fully destroyed limbs, though still blackened to a crisp. Only one eye remained untouched by the element of fire, whilst the The Rotted Fork lay uselessly next to the body amongst the rubble beneath the wall-crater, seemingly unbothered by the blazing heat it withstood moments earlier.

Back to Salamander, she was staring at the corpse of Brian with wide-eyed horror, mouth agape in disbelief.

In all her years as the Spirit of the Element of Fire, Salamander had never outright killed anyone. Sure, she drained men dry to near the brink of death via passionate, fiery sex, but always makes sure they survived and got to go home. Duels or tests of skill and strength that were pit against her never resulted in her opponent dying, and she was proud of that; it greatly boosted her reputation amongst humans too, not that she cared either way.

However, she was never fond of needless death. Especially when a fight is meant to be all in good fun, but now? She crossed the line, took the life of another whom was both someone especially rare, fairly nice and a friend of the little Granberia.

'Oh no,' Salamander thought as she eyed the location where the little dragonkin lay far away from the location of the duel, miraculously still asleep after all of that, 'How will she take this?'

The Fire Spirit began to tear up; never in her life had she felt so guilty. Taking a life and possibly scarring a youngling for life, something she would have on her conscience forever.

"I... I-I'm sorry..." That was all she could say.

She didn't think a simple friendly fight would lead to this.

"Hmmmmm... Wha happennnnned...?"

!

Salamander jolted her head back to the corpse, only to realise it wasn't a corpse at all.

Somehow, even with his intestines literally leaking bodily fluids outside of his body, Brian was still alive. And very woozy.

She immediately bolted through the air and whizzed over to the crash sight, picking the Crimson Lord up by the shoulders whilst careful not to do it too tightly; he was still in critical condition after all.

"H-how are you alive?!" She whisper-screamed in his face, still with unshed tears in her eyes.

Brian, on the other hand, was unempathetic towards how she was feeling right now, and only offered an eye-roll in return, "relaaaaaaaxxx, It's all fiiiiiiii-"

"No, it's not all fine! I thought I _killed_ you! W-what would I tell little Granberia?! Do you even realise that," she gestured her eyes towards the disintegrated half of his torso, "half your body is g-g- _gone_?!"

"Hmmmmmmmmmm..." Brian seemed to stare at the ceiling, lost in thought for a few seconds before suddenly flinching heavily in pain, "owowowowowowowowwww!... Ok, I feel it now..."

Salamander just stared at him in confusion, "E-eh?"

"Sorry, just turning my nerves on, hehehehe..." He grinned at her with his no longer charred lips, his face suddenly regaining it's lush, pale skin back, "That's how I didn't pass out from shock in the first place from your attack; deactivated all feeling in my body."

Before the Fire Spirit could question how that works, she suddenly noticed the severe lack of 'near-death' Brian's face was expressing, "Waitwaitwait, how are-"

* **SLAP** *

A thick, fleshy pink tentacle came out of nowhere and slapped Salamander with enough force to send her skidding several feet away from Brian, however in turn letting him get dropped to the ground.

Good thing he had both feet back now, landing into a squat once hitting the floor.

Salamander recovered from the surprise attack, shocked that Brian not only got the drop on her once, but _twice_! The nerve of this guy...

"To answer your question I rudely interrupted," he stood back up to his full height, his pale muscled body glistening in the ominous light provided by the surrounding magma, "Incredibly high regeneration."

His body was exactly as it was before he got fucked by the super ultra mega death beam of fire, his hair even in the exact same messy spiked look as before.

Although, Salamander was more focused on the crotch.

' _Definitely bigger than average..._ '

She shook her head; now was not the time! "What was that for?!" She shouted, referring to the bitch-slap.

Brian simply rose an eyebrow in faux-confusion, "Oh? We're still in the middle of a duel, are we not?" He imitated her exact same, cocky smirk, " I was merely defending myself from the _big, bad Flame Spirit._ "

...Oh.

Ohhhh.

' _He's gonna play dirty, is he?_ ' She thought whilst giving her opponent a glare in return, ' _Well I'll show him how a monster around here plays dirty._ '

"Hmhmhmhm~, I see then," she got into a fighting stance, her hair flaring up in excitement, "Guess this ' _regeneration_ ' means I don't have to go easy on you!"

"Same here," he returns, hunching over to expose his back more to the open air, "Seems like I'll have to exert myself to defeat you!"

"Ha! We'll see about tha-"

* **RIIIIIIP** *

The sound of skin tearing open interrupted her, as a giant, skeletal hand with flesh covering it various places erupted out of Brian's back, who was seemingly not feeling any pain at all if his determined glare was anything to go by.

Several tentacles followed the hand, the revolting sounds of flesh and bone being moulded and rearranged as the bloody appendages continuously came followed each other as though in a queue.

However, to top the list of horrors, a gore-themed parasitic worm-like creature came out last, besting every other extremity in both size and disgust. It roared a terrifying " **REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAGGH** " as it shifted to face itself upon the trembling Fire Spirit, featuring a cylindrical mouth armoured with sharpened teeth and glowing, yellow orbs on either side of the jaw, malicious and evil in their leering look.

Overall, Brian looked as though the entire top half of his torso was consumed by an amalgamation of gore.

However, he still seemed to be able to see despite his face being blocked out, as the Crimson Lord went to pick up his trusty halberd, before facing towards Salamander, shouting out loud, "You READY?!"

Whilst beyond horrified at the new look Brian had gained, she decided to interrogate him on all this bullshit after the fight, staring at him with a renewed determination, replying, "Ready!"

At the response, the amalgamation of flesh jumped inhuman heights towards the Fire Spirit, showing that his strength had vastly increased. Landing right in front of her with a collision of pike against rock, Salamander realised he was doing a repeat of his earlier attack where he caught her leg.

Deciding to make a dash backwards, her assumption was correct as the jagged hook swooped right where she had once been. Seeing an opening, the Fire Spirit returned in kind with a fire-induced roundhouse kick, only for it to be grabbed by one of the many tentacles sprouted out of Brian's back.

Then _SMASH_! It threw her to the ground behind the Crimson Lord, who was about to follow up with an overhead smash with the Fork, but Salamander managed to recover in time and rolled out of the way.

' _Seems whilst he's like this, physical attacks don't seem to work whatsoever. Anything I do will be blocked by the tentacles, and I have yet to see what the worm can do,_ ' she analysed her situation as Brian lumbered after her, the uneven balance of mass on his back seemingly not bothering his stride, ' _It's best to stick to ranged attacks for now until I find an opportunity._ '

Summoning an orb similar to the one she used to obliterate Brian earlier, albeit smaller in size, she quickly punched it, causing the fire to separate into eight miniature fireballs, which began homing in on the fleshy amalgamation from all angles.

The Crimson Lord attempted to disrupt the attack by parrying them with his halberd. However, two managed to pass through his wide sweep, exploding upon contact with the fleshy appendages.

" **REEEEEEEEEEAAAGH!** " The worm released an ear-wrenching screech as flames climbed up the entirety of Brian's body, causing him to stumble back slightly before dashing towards Salamander.

Seeing the obvious weakness the mutation had to fire, Salamander repeated her attacks whilst continuously dancing around the fleshy tank, launching pyromancies of all forms; spires of flame summoned beneath the giant whom jumped around them, fireballs which either got parried or made contact with the extremities, and even trying a bit of improv: slicing her arm in a wide-arc which sent flames sweeping towards Brian along the ground.

Occasionally a tentacle got a little too close or the hand attempted to crush her, but she simply flew further away to increase distance between them. It seemed Brian was simply relying on instinctual desire; no actual technique nor proper power put into his attacks, making it easier to defend against - even if it was more unpredictable compared to, for example, a Cursed Sword user.

After a couple more minutes of hitting and running, the Fire Spirit smirked at the tired state her opponent was in, the worm displaying a tired look in it's orb-like eyes and the Crimson Lord hunched over.

She thought that she won the duel (without causing a death this time), however, the only reaction she got was Brian dropping his halberd to the ground, muttering under his breath all the while.

"Nonononononononooooooo..." He began grasping where his head was underneath the mass of tentacles, the worm in his back groaning with him, "I can't-I **WON'T**!... lose..." His body turned back towards the confused Fire Spirit, as he took a more feral stance with tentacles levelled forward like spears.

Brian then teleported behind his opponent. Like, literally teleported.

" **FuCKinG gO dOWn BItCh!** " He screeched in ferocity, slamming every extremity but the worm onto Salamander's current position, her previous daze enough to smash into her back uninterrupted.

She was sent flying, her body destroying stalagmites in the field of collision, before eventually catching herself by floating in midair.

"He's gotten stronger..." She whispered whilst catching her breath, but not for long as Brian scraped the skeletal hand across the ground in front of her, blocking her vision with dust and rock. Then the intestine-like worm decided to finally making itself known, shooting down directly to Salamander's head, with intentions of swallowing whole.

Luckily, she saw it coming and managed to grab the thing by it's triangle teeth, pitting the two in a standstill as one force tried to overcome the other.

However, after a few more seconds of this, a thick yellow acid sprayed out of the worm's mouth onto the Fire Spirit's body with a hiss, causing her to grit her teeth to hold back the pain as her skin sizzled under the intense corrosiveness.

Eventually, her arms gave out to the searing pain as the parasite missed it's intended target, but managed to grapple on to her shoulder with a sickening _CRUNCH_!

"Agghh!" She winced at the tight grip of teeth, unable to do anything as the parasite flailed her about madly; she was struck against the cavern walls, floor, and rock spires as Brian ran around to find anything to pound her in to.

Eventually, Salamander escaped the rabid hold on her by setting off a powerful explosion of fire via her wispy hair, eliciting a screech of agony from both Brian and the worm as his entire body was immediately set on fire, tossing the tan-skinned girl furiously away whilst both tentacle and human hands attempted to pat the flames out.

The Fire Spirit struggled to get up on her feet after the beat down, scrapes and scratches decorating her once beautiful figure and some skin even burnt off at the arms due to being swamped by the waterfall of ichor earlier.

' _Seems like-_ ' she winced at trying to use her left foot, ' _-he's trying to end this as quickly as possible... much more brutal and aggressive..._ ' Her eyes droned over to Brian, who was still getting cooked by the flames even as they were dying down.

Salamander then returned back to her well-known determination filled smirk, not willing to back down even in the face of someone straight out of a horror story, ' _Time to make full use of his weakness and my strength!_ '

Summoning her powers as the master over the fire element, Salamander brought a bright orange orb streaked in flame into creation, slowly increasing in volume; the same type of orb that caused Brian's first ' _death_ '.

Speaking of the master of flesh, He managed to eventually put the flames out, albeit with many less tentacles than he used to have, along with the skeletal hand disappearing, charred skin streaking over almost every part of his body. Unsurprisingly, it was already healing back to it's original creamy colour.

Brian noticed the attack his opponent was charging up, and narrowed his eyes, which were now visible due to the lack of fleshy appendages covering it up. She thought she could use her OP as fuck attack (again), steal the win and get away with it? Nah.

Fuck. That. _Shit_.

The gore-themed worm, still sprouted out of the Crimson Lord's back, suddenly elongated and widened, it's features becoming more twisted as rows upon rows of teeth were visible inside it's tunnel-like mouth, screeching in a much more scratchy and deeper tone.

Salamander was not phased however as she soared up gracefully towards the cavern ceiling despite her injuries, before diving into a free fall towards the blazing ball of fire.

The difference however, was that Brian was ready for it.

Breaking into a mad dash towards where the Fire Spirit would make contact, the redhead had a gleeful, almost sadistic expression on his face, unable to contain his excitement at the 'final showdown' as he dubbed in his head.

Meanwhile, the worm-like appendage's mouth began emitting a sinister golden glow, preparing it's own 'final attack'.

They were both really close now; excitement was an understatement to describe the rush that they both felt.

A feeling that both parties haven't felt in a long time.

The exhilaration of a good fight between equals!

"BRIAAAAAAAAN!"

" **SALAMANDEEEEEEER!** "

Fire and ichor met each other in a massive discharge of energy, the earth around them shuddering as though the volcano was about to erupt. The sounds of battle reached outside, where flocks of birds and other fauna fled the scene in fear of potential danger.

And monster girls, whether sleeping, eating or sucking the 'life force' out of a man were also scared of the earthquake enveloping the surrounding area, deciding to shelter themselves in case it was a predator or powerful hero.

However, a few seconds later, silence.

Pure. Silence.

The cavern was in utter shambles now. Barely any of it was recognisable to its original beauty; rock formations that may have taken decades, perhaps centuries to come about were erased in the consuming explosion, all the miniature craters have formed into a single, gigantic one at the epicentre of the clash, digging the ground out even deeper.

And at opposite ends of the crater lay a Fire Spirit gasping for air sharply, her body covered in innumerable burn marks and her stomach seared due to acid, not to mention the gashes and slashes along her skin from being tossed around like a toy by an angry child.

Other than that, she looked more exhausted than anything.

Brian on the other hand, whilst faring a lot worse than his opponent. Still suffering a great amount of burn based damage - his arms are still slightly on fire - some of his skin even completely incinerated to reveal muscle and bone underneath. Most notably, the eldritch abominations had fully disappeared, leaving his muscular and lean back in one piece again.

If it weren't for his OP as fuck super-regen, he would have died (twice and counting) much sooner.

Shambling towards the fallen Spirit, with a limp in his stride, Brian let out an insane chuckle as he eyed out the splayed out form of the one who burnt him to near death, forced him to use his incredibly dwindled power, and gave him such a thrill. Truly, he's not felt this excited since the last 'personal war' he had with his brother!

Chuckling a little louder, Brian finally fell to his knees beside her gasping body, before laughing manically.

Finally getting Salamander's attention, she turned her head to the side to face him with a lazy grin, "What... Haah... are you... Haaah... laughing at...?"

"I... _BEAT_ you! Haahahaha **HAHAAHAHAAAAAAH!** " Brian pushed his face directly up against the Fire Spirit's until there eyes were almost touching, cackling madly all the while whilst basking in self-glory.

"Are... you kidding?... Haaah... I..." she pressed her index finger up against his chest playfully, "beat you..."

"Oh yeaaaaaaaaaah? Then who's the one **fucking** gasping for breath whilst other stands over them triumphantly?!"

"You~..."

"No, **IT'S YOU**!"

"You~..."

" **YOU!** "

"You~!"

" **YOUUUUUUU FUUUUUCK!** " He suddenly punched the floor beside her head in rage(?), before gasping for breath whilst glaring down at the flushed Fire Spirit, "...Admit defeat."

"Hmmmmmmmmmmmm..." She looked to the side in faux-thought, stroking her chin before saying out loud, "Tie!"

" **Ffffffff** ffff...FINE!" He gave up on shouting in the woozy Spirit of Fire's face, sitting up to observe the surrounding carnage they accomplished, "Need to clean up all this now..."

"Or~" Brian suddenly felt an unexpected presence attaching itself to his back, causing him to flinch in surprise as Salamander rubbed her tits up and down against him, "We could have another fight~?"

He didn't appear to catch on however and instead responded with a flippant role of the eyes, " Pfft, really? We're both clearly in no condition to do anymore strenuous physical activity," ' _Honestly, fucking idiot._ '

His hot and bothered partner giggled, "Then how about we have a brawl~..." She put her mouth up against his ear and whispered lustily, " _In be_ -"

"AAAAAHHHHHHH WHAT HAPPENED?!"

They both suddenly whipped their heads towards the source of the scream (Salamander with a glare at being cut off), before noticing the one who interrupted them, a figure standing at the edge of the crater opposite the two. A very short, scaly figure.

Oh. They forgot about Granberia.

"ARE YOU BOTH OKAY?!" She shouted from afar with an extremely worried and anxious tone, both adults looking at each other nervous at how they'll have to explain why the cavern looks much bigger than before.

"..."

"..."

"...Haaaaahh..."

The Fire Spirit sighed when she realised it would have to be her job, "Fine..."

Brian didn't sympathise, "It's what you get for losing."

"Eh?! I thought I said it was a-"

"Sorry, what was that? All I hear are the moans 'n groans of a sore fucking _loser_."

She grumbled under her breath angrily, before jabbing a finger in the Crimson Lord's face, "Whatever! Remember what I said; I'll kick your ass in a rematch~"

She finished with a wink, Brian cockily smirking at her bravado.

"GUYS! CAN YOU HEAR MEEEE?!"

They turned back to look in the dragonkin's direction, "C-COMING GRANBERIA!" Salamander shouted back before shooting off towards her, The redhead left to sit alone in the crater.

He smirked to himself.

Honestly, in all of his aeons of living, today had been one of the weirdest and yet most fun days of Brian's life so far.

* * *

Half an hour later, and eventually everything had settled down.

Salamander, who had taken one of Brian's healing potions, was back to her original beauty, sitting on one of the many makeshift rock stools with her companions whilst explaining what had occurred during the dragonkin's heavy nap; from Brian healing the little one's wounds to the two fighters nearly causing a ' _cave-in_ '.

Granberia had finally calmed down, although still nervous in the presence of the powerful and renowned Fire Spirit, hanging on to every word she uttered with expression changing from shock, to horror, to awe for respective moments in the story telling.

Brian was able to reclothe himself (much to two monsters' disappointment), now wearing a red tank top that had a black spider logo on the chest, with charcoal shorts. Luckily he always comes prepared by storing almost everything he may need in his sentient bag. Right now, he was silently listening to the conversation with an unreadable expression, much calmer and less angsty than earlier during the heat of the battle.

What can he say? Fighting just made him want to say 'fuck' a lot.

"-and then we exploded, _BOOM_!" the story teller finished by gesturing an explosion with her hands, making her little listener yelp slightly at the sudden loud noise, "aaaaaand now we're here."

"Y-you're sure you're both okay...?" She questioned with a very concerned tone.

"Yeah, deffo! Although," the Fire Spirit began roughly nudging an annoyed Brian's shoulder, "Can't say much for you, eh?"

"Do you want to **die?** "

"Well, it wouldn't beat your record of two to three times."

" **I will FU-** "

"A-anyway!" Granberia cut in as to avoid another earthquake, "You said you would explain what you are, right?" she directed towards the Crimson Lord, whom responded with a deadpan expression.

"I didn't agree to that though."

"Well you should. Because first of all," she suddenly brought the little dragonkin close in a bear hug, hiding her head in between her breast, "You almost traumatised the little one here! What with you apparently sticking a large, spiky tentacle up a guy's ass!"

Brian nervously tilted his head to the side, "You heard that?"

"Yeph phorry mphtr phryam bth-"

"Release her from your hold, please?"

The protective Spirit hushed a "sorry" whilst letting the dragonkin breathe, taking a while to intake air before speaking again, "S-sorry mister Brian, but you were... v-very loud and I couldn't help myself but to take a peak and-"

"I get it. Sorry you uh, had to hear that."

"Eh, the douche deserved it so whatever I guess. But," Salamander pressed her face aggressively against his until the only thing visible were her angry eyes, "Explain. Now."

' _For fuck sake. No getting out of this,_ ' Brian nervously thought to himself. He had no idea if he should be sharing this info, especially since there were evidently no such things as male monsters in this part of the world; hell, he could be in another universe for all he knew! After all, space-time magic is a thing.

A thing that almost no one could use without tearing themselves apart to the intermolecular level, but it was still a thing.

But yeah, Brian should leave that potential theory out. He didn't want his first couple of people in this place that he actually liked to think he was insane. Of course, male monsters can't be excluded since, well, they knew he existed.

' _Just... **FUCKING** get it over with,_' he growled internally, before facing the four-year old dragonkin and 'a certain number of years'-old Fire Spirit who were paying their full attention to him.

He spoke.

"I am Brian, aka the _Lord of the Crimson_ , aka the _Brain of Cthulhu_."

""...Eh?""

Was their combined response, unable to really understand what he meant.

"You don't look like a brain..." Granberia ' _intelligently_ ' spoke up, the Crimson Lord deigning it with an eye-roll.

"Obviously... think of it as liiiike... a ' _final form_ ' sorta thing, I don't know. I mean, what you are seeing right now," He gestured towards himself, "Is a human form I created to ' _fit in_ ' easier."

"Ooohhhhh..."

"Anyway, to continue on, I am the Lord of the Crimson; a cursed land where everything within resembles some gross monstrosity of flesh, bone, and the like."

"Aaaaand how come you're the so called ' _Lord_ ' of this land?" Salamander questioned with clear curiosity in her tone, which was odd to Brian. Shouldn't she at least be glaring daggers at him in pure disgust by now?

Never the less, he continued, "I was born into the role; in fact I'm the sole reason this curse exists in the first place, and since I've been around since the dawn of the world, it's sort of a wide-spread knowledge at this point. I'm pretty sure asshole parents use it as some excuse to make kids eat their greens as well..." He mumbled the last part in mild annoyance, and whilst Salamander was entertained by his suffering, she didn't seem to buy the story.

"How come I've never heard of this place then? I mean, I don't ever leave Gold Volcano due to my role as a Primordial Spirit, but even I would've known at least whispers about such an... _interesting_ place," she raised an eyebrow as she said this. Salamander was willing to trust this guy - gave her such a good time, after all - but the holes were too big to not notice.

"That's the exact same situation for me as well; I know next to nothing about the current geography or local landmarks, which I'm also sure I would have heard of regardless of almost never leaving my home. But the worst part," He looked into the Fire Spirit's eyes with worry in his eyes, "I can't sense the Crimson. _At all_. And it's essentially a part of me; I should be able to feel it regardless of where I am in the world. Bottom of the ocean, opposite side of the planet, anywhere!" Brian sighed at the end, letting his frustration show.

He needed to go home. 'Home is where the heart is', they say, and in Brian's case, it's literal. And if he isn't there to look over it...

' _Those **FUCKING** Dryads better not go anywhere near the **FUCKING** border..._' Then, he suddenly remembered the entire point of why he bothered to come here (well, another being to help little Granberia), "Hang on a minute, you said you'd help me out with directions and getting a-"

"We'll get to that later; don't try to derail the conversation," she sternly told him, much more serious than before as she took this information in. From what the Fire Spirit was hearing, Brian was far away from home. Like, very _very_ far away. If he was telling the truth of course, but she could tell a liar apart from someone speaking the truth in an instant; a necessary skill to develop when humans and monsters alike attempted to befriend and/or capture her solely to gain her unparalleled elemental mastery of fire.

She could see it in his eyes.

Lost, confused and homesick.

"What about where you live then? As in, what are the local humans, monsters, etcetera like?"

"Welllllll..." The redhead didn't really want to talk about how he has literally slaughtered thousands, possibly more in various tantrums - even if they were instigated by the dickheads in the first place - but yeah, he had to be fully honest if he wanted to develop trust with a potentially powerful ally.

"They usually... the humans at least, go on expeditions to try and kill me."

Salamander wasn't surprised to be honest; someone of Brian's background would obviously instil fear into the masses, and with fear comes violence.

Deciding to drop that topic, since the Crimson Lord was clearly uncomfortable with it, the Fire Spirit continued, "So, what about the monsters? They any good?" 'And do any of them have dicks as big as yours?' She wanted to say, but it definitely was not the time.

"Yeah, they're much kinder to me; although, most of them live underground due to the humans actively killing them everywhere and anywhere-"

She rose an eyebrow at this; humans were the dominant species there?

"-although they don't really help themselves by actively seeking humans out to slaughter; part of the reason why they hate each other so much to be honest," he finished in a depressed tone of voice, which Salamander took notice of.

"You seem like something's bothering you," she placed a hand on his back in an attempt to comfort, "Wanna talk about it?"

"..."

He really shouldn't. He should just shut his dumbass emotions up and carry on with the lore of where he comes from. There was no need.

But, Brian couldn't hold it in anymore; he needed a shoulder.

So he turned to face her and surprisingly, it seemed like Brian was tearing up slightly, "I'm worried about my sister. She... she gets into trouble with humans very frequently, you see? Always going on and on about this ' _humans and monsters should coexist_ ' bullshit, and it always makes me sick every time she talks about it; humans don't give a shit about monsters! All they do is slaughter us, use our body parts for weaponry, equipment and the likes, just to use that to kill even more! Constantly making me worry and... a-and I can't handle that sort of shit in my head, constantly wondering if her corpse is being ravaged for armour... I..."

A lone tear slid down his face.

"...I can't handle this shit anymore..."

"B-bria-"

"And the **WORST FUCKING PART** ," he yelled standing up, causing his listeners to back up in their seats in surprise, "Is that **I AM THE MAIN REASON** they actively seek her out! The humans... they **fucking** hate me and I don't blame them... but they're still scum... trash, the whole lot.

"I actively hunted their homes down, to destroy them one by one. I thought it would take the heat off of her, and other monsters too, allow them to settle down, **LET _ME_** take the blame... but you know what she does?

"She **FUCKING YELLS AT ME!** Saying I ruined her chances of developing peace, only antagonising monsters more. I truly regret what I did back then, so I stopped all the slaughtering and hid... waited as humans tried to hunt me down and deliver swiss justice for their fall kin. Of course, all failed, and I killed them.

I'm still lucky to have her in my life, really. She has since forgiven me, but... what I did was truly unredeemable, most monster species having to go into hiding due to my actions... If there's any true monster, it would most certainly be m-"

"T-that's not true mister Brian!"

Brian quickly raised his head to face Granberia, who had been silent the whole duration of the explanation, taking every word in whilst letting the 'adults' talk.

She, too, was wet in the eyes.

"Y-you've been so nice when you've o-only just met me... so... you can't be a bad person!"

"...How come?" He rose an eyebrow in confusion.

"W-well, you saved me from those bad guys earlier... not anyone w-would step in like y-you did!"

"One act of kindness does not remove one of a lifetime of sin."

"Well, yeah," Salamander piped in, "But from the sounds of it, you just want to not be alone right? You desire companionship, like you have with your sister."

Brian became flustered slightly at being easily unraveled; that was true, but he also desired to maintain his reputation as an unparalleled god of all evil. Stroked his ego to be feared amongst all (mainly human cunts) for his power.

"W-well... i guessssss..." The Fire Spirit smirked at the answer.

"Well? Here you go!" She gestured towards the little dragon girl, "plus one friend!"

"And for the record," Salamander continued before Brian could protest, "I don't think you're a bad person either. I mean, for you to worry so much about this sister of yours and even _kill_ for her safety? That tells me all I need to know about your nature."

Brian didn't like this; these two shouldn't be nice to him. He had killed hundreds, thousands! And whilst they were all humans, he was pretty sure he indirectly caused a good majority of the monster population to abandon their homes in fear of the bipedals sentencing them to mass genocide, whilst some settlements had already met that fate.

To sum it up, the Crimson Lord had changed the future of both humans and monsters for the worst.

He was unredeemable.

"How can you... say that?" He didn't notice tears beginning to build up again, "I've caused nothing but ruin... you should be _repulsed_ by my presence, exile me to defend for myself. Anything but... _this_."

"Defending a kid from three brutish men doesn't really imply that though, does it?"

"That's-"

"Listen Brian, I'm getting sick and tired of saying this over and over, so get it into your head!" She suddenly grabbed the sides of his head with both hands and gave him a soul-piercing glare, "You. Are not. A bad. Person."

' _That's definitely something_ she _would say..._ '

After a few seconds of the staring contest, Salamander let go and returned to her spot and regained her lazy smirk, "Got it?"

"...Got it," he wiped his teary eyes before gaining a small smile, secretly glad to be under someone else's nice list, "Have to say, you're being awfully kind to someone who just beat the shit out of you a few minutes ago."

"What can I say? I like strong people."

"So..." Granberia spoke up in a concerned tone, directing a teary gaze over towards Brian, "Does that mean you're... not sad anymore?"

Overall? Hardly. But right now? ...Somewhat.

"Sure, I guess."

"Yay!" the little dragonkin then jumped into the redhead's lap, snuggling into his chest deeply. If she was trying to ease the tension, the act of adorableness sure as hell worked.

Meanwhile, Brian was doing everything in his power not to stroke her hair furiously, like a kid getting a pet dog.

He'd most likely tear her head off.

The Crimson Lord was taken from his thoughts of accidental decapitation when the Fire Spirit coughed, shooting a teasing smirk towards him.

He glared back with murderous yellow eyes.

"Anyway," she attempted to direct the conversation elsewhere, "I would like to talk with you, Granberia."

She seemed to jump a little at being called out directly, "W-what about?"

"I've been watching you since you repelled that Lava Girl; the indomitable spirit of a warrior was hard not to notice."

She blushed a little at the compliment, "Th-thank you, but I'm n-not that good..."

"No, you're not," The Fire Spirit's tone grew serious, "You would have surely fallen had your body not been lava resistant."

The dragon girl's face fell at the cold, hard truth.

"However," she perked up again, "You displayed something I've seen in very few warriors, and even less in younglings; the ability to immediately adapt to your opponent, whether it involves changing up your fighting style to suit the environment or the type of enemy. Something that is hard to attain amongst most."

"W-what do you mean?"

"Well first of all, before you get mad at me, I could have interfered sooner, but wanted to see how it would play out," She directed an apologetic smile towards the two.

Brian simply rolled his eyes; not like he gave a shit at this point.

Granberia however, was much more vocal, "No no, it's okay! You obviously had y-your reasons."

Salamander nodded, "Right. Now secondly, as I saw you fight, you quickly realised that the Lava Girl was essentially immune to punches and heavy swipes due to being able to regenerate her mass back together, right?"

Remembrance of the fight suddenly flashed through the little one's mind, "Oh yeah! So I tried a flurry of quick and concise slashes with my claws to see if it would be able to overcome her regeneration, and it worked!"

"And then what did you do?!"

"I exploited the weakness until she was defeated!"

"YES!" The Fire Spirit then swooped the dragonkin away in her arms, rubbing their cheeks very close together, "See?! You're an incredible fighter!"

"AGH!" She was also getting choked to death yet again, futilely trying to push her captor off, "Y-yeah I guess, but w-what does t-t-that have to with a-anything?"

At the question, Salamander lessened her death grip, before levelling her eyes with the dragonkin's.

"Granberia."

"...Y-yes?"

"How would you like to be my apprentice?"

Shock. Shock and joy, that was what was flooding her senses.

The Fire Spirit, Salamander, renowned amongst many for her fighting prowess in hand-to-hand and weaponry, as well as her affinity with the strongest and most powerful element; fire. Someone who acknowledged few and far in between, only those who displayed skill in the art of combat.

And she had chosen her; a four year old dragon girl whom was nothing remotely special, even having to be saved by some random guy who showed up out of no where (she internally thanked Brian again). The dragonkin didn't believe one little brawl could summarise her potential.

But if Salamander believed in her, then she wouldn't let her down. She wouldn't let Brian down.

She would get stronger, and prove to herself that she was worthy.

And right now, a once in a lifetime opportunity to do so was waiting for her.

So Granberia steeled her resolve, looked the Fire Spirit dead in the eyes and said,

"I accept."

' _You'll make a fine swordswoman, Granberia,_ ' Salamander nodded as she basked in the fiery gaze of her now-student.

In all honesty, the Fire Spirit was very excited for the years to come; whilst she wasn't lacking in company due to the Lava Girls that chilled in the magma pools, along with a Dragon Girl and a couple Basilisks that made nests near the cavern entrance (luckily Granberia didn't grab _their_ attention), none really shared an actual relationship with Salamander. It was more along the lines of acquaintances; she only liked to be around strong people, and the monsters who lived in the volcano respected that as well as her title.

But now, she had a protégé! Someone to hang out with, invest time into and who she could pass on her knowledge and fighting arts to. The untapped potential within Granberia attracted her like a moth to a flame; she couldn't wait to get a real feel on her current level in a test of strength later!

She also gained a sparring partner! Brian was incredibly powerful for someone who's skin was literally rotting a few minutes before fighting, and whilst she still didn't know too much about him, Salamander knew he was a good person. That kind of backstory didn't seem to be made up, neither did the emotions behind telling it. Plus, he was the one who brought little Granberia to her in the first place, so she's thankful.

I mean, what kind of all-evil entity had a soft spot for children?

However, she was still sceptical on the nature of his abilities; it appeared to be some form of 'flesh-kinesis', what with him forming that monstrous appearance out of his own meat and blood.

He did say that he was known as the 'Brain of Cthulhu', and whilst it was a weird title, it sounded very familiar to her. How the Fire Spirit recognised the name, she did not know, which was odd; a giant floating brain would be very hard to forget.

All it did was make her want to find more out about Brian. Her unknown connection to him, along with the guy being essentially the first male monster ever seen in history, drawing her.

Speaking of the redhead, Brian was wearing a small smile at the little display of affection before him. He should really do this sorta thing more with Ellen.

However, he decided to cut in with a cough; he needed information on where the fuck he was.

Catching Salamander's attention, Brian spoke, "I don't suppose we could move along with my reward, could we?"

"Oh~?" The Spirit cheekily replied whilst placing the dragonkin softly back on a rock stool, before sauntering over to Brian, swaying her hips.

"And what reward would that be~?" She said in a husky tone, leaning down to Brian's sitting form.

"Perhaps you'd want..." Their foreheads were touching, "M-"

' _Enough of this bullshit._ '

The response to her advances was a furious headbutt, knocking her down to the floor on her ass with an "Oww!"

"What I want is a map. That's it," He stood up looked out behind him towards the cave exit at the opposite end of the cavern, "And possibly information on the locals."

"Wait..." Brian turned back to face a dejected Granberia, grabbing on to his leg, "You're leaving?"

' _Well at least she's not stuttering every sentence now._ '

"Yes, I have to get home, little one," As much as he'd love to smother her like she were his own, he needed to make sure Ellen was okay.

She was pretty much his only link to staying sane in his shithole of a home.

Also, he had to make sure those 'tree shaggers' didn't spread their purification shite on his land.

"But... b-but..." Her grip grew stronger, "I don't want you to go..."

"W-why not?"

Resistance was getting harder.

"...I-I'll miss you... Y-you're the first person to ever *SNIFF* ever be nice to me..."

She raised her teary face to meet his blushing one.

"P-please don't..."

The critical hits were too much. Brian looked to Salamander for support, only to meet an evil smirk of satisfaction, relishing in his suffering.

She was essentially saying ' _How ya gonna handle this?_ '

' _And I thought I was evil._ '

Eventually after mumbling through his words for a few seconds, unable to give a proper answer that would satisfy the crying child, the Fire Spirit decided to cut in.

"Your sister's not going anywhere right?"

He shrugged. Ellen did have a kingdom to run, and was pretty powerful in her own right, so he supposed she could handle herself.

Not to mention those leeches who followed her around, acting as her guard dogs. As _cunty_ as they were, they did a good job at protecting their Queen.

"Then why not stay with us for a while?" She suggested with a wink.

"What would I possibly gain from that?"

"Weeeelllll..." She poked him sharply in the stomach, "I know you aren't in your best shape at the moment, so it'd be a good time to regain your strength. You like caves, right?"

That was true, he supposed.

"Not to mention Gold Volcano is a fairly good vantage point to explore the rest of the continent; there are many towns nearby, along with a kingdom that is well known to inhabit monsters and humans!"

That's a good point; it would allow him to observe them in their natural habitat, learn more about the locals and their way of life.

Brian really did want to learn about the world and explore. He was just too scared to do so back where he came from, seeing as everyone would get their pitchforks and torches out the moment they saw a speck of red.

Nobody knew about him here though. He could finally adventure, maybe meet some exciting new people? People less annoying than this Fire Spirit would be nice.

He could enjoy the luxuries life had to offer, maybe set up shop in a monster village? Oh! He could sell potions! Alchemy was pretty fun to practice back alone in his cave, so Brian was adept in the subject.

He could have a fresh start, make lots of friends, maybe even start a family!

...No. That's impossible for someone like him. With his particular curse.

Anyway, all he needed was Ellen to be happy.

' _Fuck me and fuck dreams,_ ' the redhead disregarded his thoughts and refocused on Salamander.

"Aaaaaaaand," She got Granberia into another bear hug, before pulling him in as well, "You got _us_!"

 _Terrible_ point, but...

"Pleeeeeeease?" Granberia pleaded from her position against Brian's chest.

' _...I guess I've got nothing to lose._ '

After all, it would be idiotic of him to run around aimless, even with a map, hoping to find some convenient way of getting home. Ellen would want Brian to enjoy himself, not slowly die inside until he loses all hope at seeing her beautiful smile again.

It would be smart to get used to where he was dropped off; he did feel some sort of connection to this cavern, as though he had been here before, so it did seem to have some significance and wasn't just random chance.

Yep. Just that. No other _adorable_ reason at all.

"...Fine."

"Nice!" The Fire Spirit exclaimed before releasing all of them from her vice grip.

"Now," she directed her gaze to Brian's pale form, "You go figure this whole ' _slowly dying_ ' stuff out whilst me and Granberia begin our-"

"BLAAARRGH!"

"AAAAAAHHH!"

The sound of blood slapping the stone floor and a dragonkin screaming interrupted her.

"Haaaaah... I'll get the bag..." She mumbled grumpily to herself as she floated off to fetch Brian's sentient luggage.

"BRIAN! PLEASE DON'T DIE!"

' _Why does this situation feel familiar?_ '


	3. The Quest For Sustenance: Part 1

It has been day since the duel between the Spirit of Fire and Brain of Cthulhu, and nothing exciting or stress-inducing was happening; no spontaneous explosions, crying dragon children or near-death experiences... yep, all was good. For now.

currently, Salamander and Brian were laying down on make-shift sunbeds, the Fire Spirit writing on a note-pad with a red ink-pen (offered by Brian) and the Lord of Crimson wearing deep black shades (also from Brian) with yesterdays attire, whilst Granberia was relaxing in a starfish shape in the lava pool by their feet.

Essentially, it was like your everyday family on a summer holiday.

In Hell.

Currently, the Crimson Lord was recounting one of his most disturbing methods of 'self-defense'.

"...And then his innards went flying everywhere; was rather gruesome."

"So what you're saying is you were inside of another man?"

"Well... yes, but not in the way you're clearly motioning towards."

"And which way is that?"

"The way that apparently all monsters of this perverted world think."

"I'll take that as a compliment~"

"Whaaaaaatever."

They deserve this chill-time to be fair, as the prior day's events were rather... weird, for lack of better words.

after all the drama settled, a few matters had needed to be addressed.

Specifically? Brian.

It was decided upon (with clear tampering to the votes) that he would be living with the Master and Student for the foreseeable future. That is, until any leads came up on Brian's sister, or other home-world monster acquaintances. A deal that would benefit both Brian's information seeking, Salamander's lust for fighting and Granberia's (albeit already terrible) childhood.

Another issue that came up was the male monster's death timer.

He needed the Crimson to survive, and without it for prolonged periods of time - or exerted use of his powers - death would be imminent. Now, there were three ways to go about solving this predicament, but one involved eating sentient beings whilst they were alive, and another required a large amount of land to be 'Crimsified'; two things Brian was not a fan of (usually).

So the third option was clearly in favour, due to being both the cheapest and least time consuming - Obtain a large amount of mushrooms.

Now, you may be asking yourself, 'lol nig what can a buncha mushrooms do?', and the answer is, they are actually very magically potent.

Brian's ability/curse allows him to 'Crimsify' all magical objects, living and non living, and since mushrooms are both living organisms (which makes them even more susceptible) and are able to contain high amounts of magical power, it makes them perfect sources of fuel for the Lord.

All he has to do now is obtain a large amount of mushrooms, plant them, start a farm, 'Crimsify' them once fully grown, grind them into powder and BOOM! Unlimited supply of life, with little to no impact on the environment.

Whilst it won't let him reach his full power compared to, say, thousands of acres of blood-red land constantly feeding him, it will have to do.

Another issue that, surprisingly, did not involve Brian was up to Salamander.

"So..." Brian leans over to look at the notepad in his female companion's hands, "How's it coming along?"

"Hmmm..." For once since he'd seen her, the Fire Spirit was taking this seriously, judging by ordered list that detailed exercises and times, "I'm thinking running around the crater - 15 laps - in the morning to get her warmed up, then move on to arm exercises. What do you think?"

Yeah, they never repaired the damage done by their fight.

Brian huffed, "Don't ask me," he said whilst turning on his side, facing away from her, "Never exercised a day in my life."

She quirked an eyebrow, "Really? muscles like those don't just come from good genes."

"You forget; 'Flesh-kinesis'."

"Well that's just cheating..."

"yeah yeah, cry more why don't ya?"

"Um, Brian?" The duo's favourite 'lil dragonkin voiced out from the lava pool, now with just her head bobbing cutely out, "Are you sure you don't wanna come in? It feels great!"

"My entire body would literally melt and fall apart, so no," he deadpanned.

"Aww..." She pouted cutely, and whilst it did incite guilt in the Crimson Lord's heart, even he was not immune to lava.

"Anyway Granberia," Salamander voiced from behind her note-pad, switching to 'teacher mode', "It's about time we start on your exercises; we'll begin with basic muscle training to see where you stand in key areas of strength."

"Aww!" She moaned again louder, "But I thought I'd learn how to use a sword first!"

"Well, without the proper conditioning, you may not be able to pick one up, let alone swing it," she spoke with authority whilst standing up, assuming a stiff and firm stance, "Now 15 laps around the crater; go!"

"...Wait, now?"

"Yes, now GO!"

"W-wah!" the little girl clambered fastly out of the pool of lava, Brian standing a careful distance away as she shook off the traces of liquid rock, before she took off in a fast sprint around the pool...

...Which was revealed to be the crater, now transformed into a 30 meter wide lake of magma with a couple of lava girls lazing about in the further regions.

Magic was a wonderful tool, no?

Brian sighed heavily after she took off, "Please, don't push her too hard."

his companion scoffed in return, "Just who do you think I am? if she wants to get stronger, she's going to need all pushing I can give her."

As usual, the male monster waves off her argument, "yeah yeah, I get it. you're the expert 'n whatnot."

However, she continues, "If anything I should be worried about you; going off into Lord knows where, scavenging about for mushrooms and exploring about like some excited foreign tourist!" the Fire Spirit looks him dead in the eyes, "Most monsters won't hesitate to eat you. Literally and metaphorically."

He narrowed his eyes, "Are you insinuating I'm weak?"

Salamander didn't back down, "In your current state? Yes."

"Then you know why I have to do this."

"Doesn't mean I have to like it."

"Look," he started with a finality in his tone, "I'm getting real tired of this 'everybody worry for Brian' bullshit, so I'm gonna set some things straight. One," index finger raised, "I will find mushrooms in a forest, and two," middle finger raised, "I will obtain alchemy equipment from a local village, and then I will return! That's it!" he then angrily jabbed his fist into her chest, "So shut up and stop whining for fuck sake!"

Clearly Brian's stubbornness on the matter wouldn't move, and since she had no other alternatives to his recovery, she had to give in.

"Haaaah... just... make sure to come back, ok?"

"Now, just who do you think I am?" He smirked back with trademark cockiness.

She returned it.

"Haaah... Haaah..." Panting resounded near them, both Spirit and Lord turning towards the source: a sweaty yet energy-filled Granberia, now jogging on the spot.

"Leaving... Haah... right now Brian...? Haah..."

'She ran all the way around in under a minute?!' "Uh, yeah. Most likely be gone for a couple of days, more or less."

"I... haaah... see..." She then smiled up sweetly at him, "Be safe... haah..."

Whilst the scene was sweet to the Crimson Lord, Salamander just had to ruin it.

"Who said you could stop?! 14 MORE, GO!"

"S-SORRY! Haaaaah..."

Brian released yet another sigh, "Well, guess that's my cue to leave."

"Remember, be sa-"

"I GET IT!"

And he was gone, a softly smiling Fire Spirit staring at where he left through the cavern entrance.

* * *

 _'Alright, so...'_ Brian, handbag on shoulder, had now left the volcano and was walking down the mountainside path once more, carrying an incredibly old world map, cut and torn in multiple places and significant browning of the paper showing it's age.

 _'I'm currently here,'_ he pointed to a cartoony-looking mountain labelled 'Gold Volcano', _'Need to go here for alchemy tools,'_ he then pointed to an equally cartoony house labelled 'Lady's village'.

Currently, it was early morning so almost no monsters should be awake for at least another hour. However, once that time does come, Brian will be the perfect breakfast for any who may find him.

Luckily, he's no ordinary human.

First order of business: mushrooms, as to get to the village the Crimson Lord must move through Gold Forest, therefore it's most convenient to collect them first.

Perhaps he could even acquire some meat? that was usually Granberia's job (part of the training) but he's the self-deigned spoiling father of the group; Salamander could suck his ass.

 _'Dragons love squirrel right?'_

All of a sudden he came to a halt.

Brian had reached the clearing where he first came upon the little one, and killed the _demons_ who dare call themselves people. Remnants of dried blood still covered the rocky path, and whilst the bodies were gone, that shouldn't be surprising to anyone; scavengers were sure to pick apart the aftermath of battles for loot or food.

It did fill Brian with a solemn feeling though.

 _'Only yesterday did we meet - in the most terrible of circumstances - and now we're practically family.'_

It reminded him of the few times the Dragonkin was terrified to see him near death, where she practically mourned for his departure. She was just as caring as...

 _'Ellen.'_

He tightly clenched his fists, tearing the map even further as he continued on his venture down the volcano.

 _'I shan't let your feelings go to waste little Granberia, Salamander.'_

All in all, Brian didn't want to lose anyone else.

* * *

Now in a forest, light making it through the canopy in trace amounts with variant colours of flora decorating the floor, the Lord of Crimson could only describe it all in one word.

 _'Beautiful.'_

Nature, to Brian, was one of his hidden passions, seeing as it was the natural beauty of the world at heart. of course, he may hate Dryads with a passion too, but secretly respected the work they must put in to maintaining areas of this volume, what with humans wishing to harness this beauty for greed-filled purposes.

Another justification to despise the majority of them, he supposed.

Too bad he was virtually bound from ever entering a woodland back home, his face and general aura being imprinted deep into the minds of every sentient being to walk on Terraria.

Honestly, fuck Dryads.

Back to Brian, who had peaceful grin on his face after witnessing a bluebird build a nest, he was gently walking through shrubbery to locate any sign of mushrooms.

Now, he was no Botanist, but the male monster was fairly sure that mushrooms could grow virtually anywhere that grass could, according to Terrarian logic of course. However, his lack of any findings was putting him off.

 _'May have to move to this 'Lady's Village' first, perhaps they have a plant-guru I could ask,'_ he began to think, before out of nowhere, he spotted something rather convenient.

Too convenient.

A giant black mushroom, creamy stalk, just sitting there in a light-filled clearing! Ripe for the taking!

However, Brian noticed one thing wrong with this scenario.

He could hear snoring.

From the mushroom.

 _'Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck **FUUUUUCK**!'_ It would be so easy just to stab a tentacle through her skull, carry the body away and be done with it (monster mushrooms must have an incredible amount of magic in them, so even bigger win), but then he remembered a conversation he had with Granberia last night...

* * *

 _"Hey," Brian suddenly said, instigated a conversation with the young dragon girl beside him._

 _Currently, it was a few hours after the battle between him and Salamander, the two monsters observing in silence as the Fire Spirit was filling up the crater caused by their fight with lava, a few lava girls helping themselves, guiding it out from the magma chamber of the volcano._

 _Honestly, Brian was a little conflicted at the idea of being surrounded by such a large body of his main weakness, but his two friends seemed rather keen on gaining a '_ private pool _', so he didn't complain._

 _"Hmm?" She cutely looked over at him in response._

'How does she make everything so adorable?!' _"W-well, you know when I first met you getting manhandled by those creatures?"_

 _"Erm, y-yeah?"_

 _"How come you barely fought back?"_

 _She flinched at the question, before righting herself, "W-what do you mean?"_

 _He turned back towards the filling lava pool, "It's quite clear that monsters, especially dragons, mature at a much faster rate than humans, gaining both a vast increase in strength, durability and stamina," then looked back at her with narrowed eyes, "Yet all you did was run away, and when their weak little arms chained you up, you did nothing."_

 _"..." Granberia focused her gaze to the floor._

 _Yet Brian continued, "You could have easily punted their asses off the mountainside."_

 _"..."_

 _"So why didn't you?"_

 _"...I..." She began with conviction filled eyes, "...I didn't want to kill them!"_

 _he raised an eyebrow, "Why? They were the scum of the earth, lower than the insects you could crush under your feet."_

 _"Well... before I was abandoned by my birth mother, she taught me something... t-that I've always lived by."_

 _"Go on," he reassured; whilst he hated the woman for leaving such a sweet little girl, this seemed to be an important part of her history._

 _"It was whenever we were attacked by bandits, knights or heroes... even other monsters! D-dragon scales are apparently very valuable, their hide a-as well..."_

 _"Ah," So it was the same here as back home; monsters being used as resources._

 _Brian clenched his hands into fists._

 _"A-and every time she told me to hide in nearby shrubs or behind rocks... and after she defeated them all, she would never actually kill them, only take everything of v-value that could help us survive," she then smiled solemnly, "Strength was the one thing I admired about her."_

 _"..."_

 _"A-anyway!" Granberia stammered, "What she would always tell me is, 'Granberia'," she imitated in a poor impression of a deep voice, inciting a repressed chuckle out of her listener._

'Too cute~'

 _"'Never stoop down to kill those who are weaker than yourself; it makes you no better than these savages' - she really liked honour, you see? it stuck with me... a-and since I have the natural strength of my s-species-"_

 _"You're scared you'll accidentally kill someone without trying to."_

 _"P-pretty much..."_

 _"Hmm," Brian appeared to look deep in thought for a few seconds, before saying, "Sounds stupid."_

 _"Gah!"_

 _Immediate effect._

 _"W-what do you mean?"_

 _"Sorry, I don't mean to discredit your beliefs Little One, it's just..." the Crimson Lord gained a dark look, "It's a 'dog eat dog' world out there, where the strong overrule the weak; it's their fault for challenging you in the first place. And lets say you do leave your enemies alive, they may just come back for vengeance, but stronger and with more backup. You're just digging yourself a deeper hole."_

 _"...Sounds like you speak from experience Brian."_

 _A humourless chuckle was his response, "I guess so Granberia, I guess so."_

 _He didn't mean to make her upset like this; his main intention was to make sure she doesn't end up in a situation such as when he first met her again - always attack with the intention to kill, no matter their strength._

 _"S-sorry but, I don't think you're right Brian!"_

 _"Oh?" the aforementioned monster was honestly surprised; she usually follows him like a sheep._

 _"I-I mean, of course against those who are bad, but there are good people too! Like... if g-guards are forced to attack you because it's their job, would you k-kill them?"_

 _Good point to be fair. There really is no set definition of what's good and what's evil; it's all based on one's perspective of the world, and that's why it's such a controversial topic._

 _Clearly, Brian's view is incredibly skewed._

 _"Yes."_

 _"W-why?!"_

 _"Because they are attacking me."_

 _"Well, y-yeah but... you can't just go around murdering people because t-they attack you! wouldn't that just... make y-you the bad guy?"_

 _That took him aback._

 _Of course, he always knew he was the bad guy, the villain. I mean, what kind of 'hero to all' hides inside a cave surrounded by miles upon miles of flesh-coloured ground?_

 _Not that he'd even want to be perceived that way, but still!_

 _Whilst everything coming out of this little girl's mouth was incredibly naïve and childish, there was some truth to what she was saying._

 _Murderers are bad people._

 _And he was the worst kind of murderer: a genocidist_ _._

 _"B-Brian?" a broken voice that made his heart wrench in disgust at himself got the Crimson Lord's attention._

 _Granberia was tearing up._

 _"I... I'm sorry... I didn't mean to... didn't mean to say you were a b-bad person..."_

 _That snapped him out of his depression immediately._

 _"No, I'm sorry for discouraging you from what you believe in Granberia. There is nothing wrong with the way you think, I guess I'm just... uhh..."_

 _"A big dummy?"_

 _He smiled. despite being very mature for her age, she was still at her age._

 _"Yes. Exactly."_

 _The dragonkin giggled, before returning to a half-serious tone, "But please, t-try not to kill everyone you meet who attacks you.. I-if you know you're stronger than them, theres n-no reason to go all out.. r-right?"_

 _Brian sighed; again with the naivety, but if he wants to get anywhere near to atoning for past mistakes, he'll go along with it. not to mention..._

 _"Pleeeeeeease?"_

'Motherfucking puppy-dog eyes,' _"F-fine, I'll try."_

 _His little companion was probably about to celebrate her success, that is until an annoying Fire Spirit decided to make herself known._

 _"Alright you two, finished with covering up the crater, now off to bed!"_

 _"Aww..." You can guess who voiced that complaint._

 _"In the morning, you'll get to play in it, ok?"_

 _"Yay!"_

 _Brian allowed another soft smile to settle on his face; that child-like innocence was too good for this world._

 _"Hey Brian, wanna share a bed~?"_

 _And of course_ she _had to ruin it._

 _" **Die.** "_

 _"Welp, worth a shot."_

* * *

He can't just break a promise he made less than a day ago; how would little Granberia react to that? Not to mention the headache that would come with the Fire Minx chewing him out.

He would have to settle on actual, pure mushrooms.

So he turned around and-

"My my, a man comes straight towards me? Well, no complaints~"

' _Are you fucking kidding me?_ '

So he turned around AGAIN to find himself face to face with...

a widow? that's the impression this 'woman' gave off, what with her body (which only consisted of a human torso attached to a mushroom stalk) donning a depressing black dress with an incredibly short skirt, along with an equally black veil that would make anyone with trypophobia vomit.

Her sorrowful expression fitted the look well.

Being the progressively-reasonable guy that Brian is, he decided to approach this diplomatically.

"Ahem, greetings. I am in need of mushrooms for alchemical purposes, and have been unable to find any yet unfortunately. If you would be so kind, could you possibly-" He pointed to the long, wiry black mushrooms sprouting out of the base of the monster's stalk, "grant me some of yours?"

Now, whilst Brian wasn't a fan of formality towards anyone, this was a literal matter of life and death, and frankly? He wanted to leave already before the more aggressive, dangerous monsters woke up. It'd be easier for him to get his request out there immediately.

Of course, it wasn't going to be that easy.

"A human, being so bold as to _ask_ me to part with pieces of myself?"

She wasn't attacking yet, which was a good sign.

"So...?"

"Well, normally I would ask for your seed for such a request, however..." Her purple eyes began to brim with tears, "I already have a husband, and dare not to give myself to anyone else."

The redhead could already see where this was going; human men, as unethical and disgusting as it was, were most likely highly valued in such a remote area. Like how animals compete for natural resources like food, shelter and mates, monsters would face the same issues around men.

"You want me to rescue your... beloved, correct?"

The mushroom girl seemed to light up at her quickly deduced query, "Yes! Please! I'll give you as many mushrooms as you want, my whole _body_ even, if you can find him!"

' _Well at least she's not a rapist,_ ' "Ok slow down, I'll do it, just need information on him."

"Oh I can tell you allllll about him~..." She started with a whimsical sigh, looking off into the foilage deep in thought, "He's the epitome of masculinity; muscles that would make a minotaur go pale, the cutest nose! Oh, and his hair! haaahhh... I already miss the salty sea scent that reminds me of the beautiful Port Natalia..."

Brian did feel some form of sympathy for this woman; he often felt like this without Ellen. Admittedly to this degree, as well.

"The way his bulging, veiny co-"

Not _that_ much.

"Igetitigetitigetit!" the redhead exclaimed with hands held up in emphasis, waiting a couple seconds before sighing, "...Soooo, a sailor then?"

"Ah yes, he did mention his previous occupation a few times."

"Anything about his kidnappers?"

"Oh yeah... those cunts," She spat with pure venom in her tone, "Those damn witches are the main reason why no men ever come through here these days! Fucking whores only care about themselves, torturing any man to death with their hallway-esque pussies!" Her livid expression faced towards Brian, "THEY SHOULD ALL DIE! WATERBOARDED! _BURN_ TO DEATH!"

Brian smirked, ' _Starting to like her._ '

a minute more of ranting - the Crimson Lord deciding to let her release her pent up frustration - and the Mushroom Girl continued, "...Anyways, a bunch of scummy bitches from Lady's Village took him a couple days ago, I've been unable to sleep properly since! I don't care if you find him alive or dead, just please-" She bowed in earnest, "-find out the fate of my beloved!"

' _How convenient. Although, judging from how these insect monsters treat men, I can't just waltz in there. Hmmm...'_

"I'll try," he ended up replying with.

"Oh thank you thank you thank you!" She cried out as if Brian had already done the deed, "Hmmm..." she suddenly seemed doubtful as she eyed the redhead from top to bottom.

"Then again, are you sure you'll be able to deal with a village full of monsters? You don't seem very..." the woman gestured to his lack of appropriate attire for battle, "...strong."

He could only chuckle at that, "Believe me, I'm _more_ than a match."

the Mushroom's doubts didn't fade however, "Are you sure? Their chief, Cassandra, is an incredibly powerful monster; she was apparently able to fight toe-to-toe with the previous Monster Lord, Alipheese Fateburn the fifteenth herself!"

Oh? Salamander mentioned something about Monster Lords, how they were recognised to be the most powerful monsters in history. From the sounds of it, this 'chief' might prove to be a challenge in the Crimson Lord's current state.

"Just have those mushrooms ready for me, okay?" He began to walk away, map unfolded and eyes laid upon it, "Be back in a couple days, two tops."

"Erm, ok... good luck!"

A sadistic grin grew on Brian's face.

He had a plan.

And he was going to _enjoy_ it.

* * *

' _Why did I have to be put on shitty perimeter watch?'_

A lone woman with a baby blue parasol thought to herself in irritation, a permanent scowl on her usually pretty face, as she stood on the outskirts of a victorian-style settlement, clearly not wanting to be there right now.

Her attire consisted of a large white dress that excreted 'elegant', a thin corset complementing her curves, along with a skirt that fell down to her feet, slightly muddied from being dragged along the dirt ground. Her white hair was styled into long ringlets that went down to her shoulders, with deep blue eyes that held no shine in them.

Whilst most upon first glance would think nothing of her other than a refined, beautiful young lady, she was in actuality a slug monster.

the tip of her 'tail' poking out was easy to miss.

' _I am a high slug! ME! A HIGH CLASS MONSTER! Put on LOOK OUT duty for food!'_ the slug thought to herself whilst scathingly glaring about the surrounding plains and tree line, the low position of the sun just above the horizon line indicating it was noon.

 _'Someone of my standards shouldn't have to sink so low as to-'_

* **RUSTLE** *

Her thoughts were cut off by the sound of movement coming from the shrubbery in the forest, her eyes instantly turning towards it.

Donning a serious expression, the unwilling sentry motioned slowly towards the possible danger, putting her parasol into a sword-like stance, faint squelching of sticky, slimy movement following her.

Of course, her worries were soon quenched and replaced with lustful hunger, upon discovering the source of the noise stumble it's way out of the tree line.

A beaten, barely clothed human male; red hair and eyes.

' _Hahahahaha! Too easy... exotic too~'_ the slug girl practically squealed in delight at the fact that the only thing between her and a free meal were a pair of black shorts.

She decided to make her desires apparent, "I guess you _really_ want to get digested whilst experiencing immense pleasure..."

The man paled upon realising his soon to be captor's wishes... and her true nature.

With mass hysteria laced in his voice, he practically screamed, "N-n-no... stay away!" bare feet dashed back into the forest, "STAY AWAAAAAY!"

' _Oooh I love it when they run!_ ', "Come back here daaaaarling~" Surprising for a slug, her speed clearly outmatched the man's stumbling pace.

' _I'm sure they won't mind if I help myself to this one; A lady such as myself needs energy for the task put before her!'_ She reasoned to herself whilst brushing past foilage, rushing past trees until the village was no longer visible.

She could no longer hear the lively chatter of various ladies that echoed throughout the town.

Pssh! As if these minor details mattered to her; the object of her desires was right before the woman, standing perfectly still and straightened.

Back facing towards her.

' _petrified out of fear,'_ she thought with a malicious smile.

"Hmhmhmhmmm... now that you must have realised theres no where to run or hide, guess I-"

* **SHLLICK** *

"Wh... What are you doing?!"

* **MUNCH** * * **RIIIIP** *

"AAAAAHHHH GET AWAY FROM ME! SOMEBODY! HELP! HEEEEEELP! AAAAAAHHHHH!"

But nobody came.

* * *

"Mare's taking a long time to come back."

"Yeah... she hates that job, so why would she ever want to work overtime?"

"Beats me, she's far from poor; probably found a man to play with."

"You don't think..."

"Naaaaah, impossible! High Slugs are very powerful, no mere human could beat her."

"I guess..."

standing by the border between the village and the plains, two women were expressing worry for their friend, elegantly clothed, featuring silky dresses with heavily accentuated curves.

One appeared to be some form of black centipede - indicated by the massive trunk-like appendage with a multitude of legs - sporting a frilly dark blue dress that covered the woman from chest to centipede body. She had wavy black hair with dark purple eyes, two stick-like antennae rising above the lucious locks.

The other was the more humanoid of the two; a succubus.

Two devilish horns jutting out symmetrically from her hot pink hair, styled into a single long braid collapsed over her left shoulder. The dress kept the 'slutty' aspect of succubi whilst still retaining a noble look; a dark purple dress that thinly slid over her legs like a robe, barely concealing her legs and chest. It even had perfectly sewn holes to allow the wings and tail to stick out.

"Still... maybe we should go get her, it's almost nine!" The Succubus continued to voice her worry.

"Hmph! Fine, if you're such a pussy may as well," her Centipede friend spoke with tire in her tone.

She didn't appreciate the comment, "At least I-"

"Erm, hello?"

Their conversation interrupted, the monster duo turned their ire towards the newcomer.

They instantly blushed a heavy red.

She was _gorgeous._

blood red bangs that fell loose down to the earth, her skin containing no irregularities or blemishes - perfect. Eyes the same colour as her hair, filled with a kind warmth that made the two monsters feel like they were before a benevolent goddess.

She was also naked.

Whilst that wasn't uncommon amongst monsters, especially wild ones, it only made the succubus and centipede more enamored than previously.

And judging from the long slithery appendage which replaced the woman's legs, she was a Slug monster.

High Slug, to be exact, based upon the unique black striped pattern over the base red slug body.

"...Erm, hello?" Her voice was firm but kind, fitted on with a slim smile.

It managed to bring them out of their mindless reverie, for the more mature of the two spoke up first.

"H-hey. You must be nnnew here, right?" The centipede monster voiced through her blush, trying to maintain eye contact above... other things.

"Mhm. I've been travelling far and wide through Sentora and happened to hear about your village... how it's a sort of hotspot for the more 'refined' monsters."

"Huh, nice to know our name's spread to someone of your beauty!" Bashfulness gone, the succubus began shaking the woman's arm vigorously, " The name's Whitney! What's yours?"

Chuckling at the pink haired minx's enthusiasm, she responded, "Elizabeth, darling, but you may call me 'Liz' for short," she turned towards the yet to be introduced centipede, now with an anxious expression, "And you are...?"

"Frieda. Forgive me for being rude, but have you seen our friend anywhere? a High Slug, like you in fact." She hurriedly questioned.

"Yeah!" Whitney added with renewed worry, "She's been gone for a while actually, five hours! Been worried sick..."

"I..." Liz began, putting a hand to her chin, "...don't believe I have. I arrived here merely a few minutes ago, and have not stumbled upon anyone but you two."

"So... she could be dead then. Great..." the succubus began with dread, yet acceptance in her voice, looking down at her feet.

"Tch. probably bit off more than she could chew... Territorial monster maybe? Dumbass," the centipede was more scathing with her comments, yet no less distraught.

"My condolences," Liz bowed. There was not much the redhead could say other than offer them her respect for the possibly-dead.

"Haaahh, happens to all of us at some point. Plus, she was kind of a bitch anyways," Frieda crossed her arms.

"Well..." Surprisingly, Whitney was already back to her excitable self, large grin plastered on her face, "How about we get you some clothes?"

The High Slug was about to respond, but Frieda decided to cut in, "Come now, Whitney! All the shops are closed by now, and our new arrival must be tired from the extensive journey, correct?"

"Why yes, that would be lovely. You two must make quite the welcoming party!" the redhead teased.

"Hmhmhm, don't get used to it," the centipede began trailing towards the inside of the village, motioning for the other two to follow, "Not everyone is as hospitable."

"Fineeeee," the succubus conceded with a groan, before suddenly returning excitement ten-fold, "But tomorrow you're going shopping with us! Sadeth's Boutique has the beeeeest dresses in the entire village!"

"Well, unfortunately I appear to be lacking in funds..."

"Nonsense! Think of it like a... welcoming present!"

"It would be rude of me not to come... very well," Liz bowed yet again, "I accept your invitation!"

"Very princess-like," Frieda commented with a smirk "Come on, this way."

"Thank you, dear."

* * *

* **SQUISH** *

Brian face planted onto the bed of his room in exhaustion.

"Uggggghhhhh..."

A little drool flowing out of his mouth.

After devouring the Slug lady, he was able to steal her DNA to transform himself into a 'High Slug', allowing for inconspicuous access to the village. An action he has rarely done due to the 'unethical-ness' of it - enforced by Ellen - but desperate times call for desperate measures as they say.

Plus, she clearly wanted to eat him, _oozing_ malicious intent, so reap what you sow.

Although, it doesn't make it any less disgusting.

Slugs don't taste very good.

And now, he's under the guise of Elizabeth, a High Slug traveller who is exploring the whole of Sentora.

Luckily, the first monsters he came across were rather nice overall, even offering to show her around the village and buy him clothes. I mean, they were the friends of the slug he ate, but meh, they'd never find out.

They even paid for his inn fee! His dignity as an unfathomable God of Darkness would not let such niceties go un-repaid.

Of course, the Crimson Lord hadn't forgot his original purpose for coming here.

One: Find an alchemist.

Two: Find this kidnapped sailor. Or, at least find out his fate.

Eh, he'd sort it out tomorrow; need to rest and save energy for maintaining his 'High Slug' persona.

' _Acting is haaaaaard...'_ Brian, now back to his regular, average-looking human form, slung back onto the bed. Overall, the room was incredibly over the top for what's supposed to be an everyday inn: the silky white double bed he was laying in, a massive golden chandelier glistening with jewels hanging above him, and... well, all of it felt like he was in a palace!

He could even see his reflection in the _wallpaper_.

* **KNOCK KNOCK** *

"Miss Elizabeth?"

"Y-yes dear?" Brian quietly morphed into his persona, just in time for a new face to peek around the door to the room.

Ah yes, the innkeeper.

She, too, was rather polite for a monster but Brian just assumed it was part of the job. Her features included dual curls of wine red hair that fell down behind her shoulders, along with warm purple eyes that expressed her polite and calm demeanor.

The woman's attire, whilst too following the dress code of 'fancy dress', was much simpler, sporting a black mini dress that hovered just above the knees, with a short-sleeved black shirt that was tightened to the skirt.

Judging from the movement of a serpent tail replacing legs, along with pointed elfish ears, she was a Lamia.

"I just wanted to inform you that breakfast will be at seven-thirty, so be sure not to oversleep." Her tone had all the warmth of a mother. She was a natural at her job.

Returning her smile in kind, 'Liz' replied, "Thank you dear; you needn't worry about me."

"Hmhmhmhm, I should hope so! Good night."

"See you tomorrow, dear."

 ***CLICK***

"Haaaah..." Melting back into the bed, and into his human form, Brian shuffled his way under the covers, trying to obtain the best position for maximum comfort.

' _These monsters... they're nicer than I expected_ ,' He thought to himself whilst trying to doze off, ' _Although I doubt this trend will keep up; this Cassandra will most likely rear her head sooner or later.'_

He made his judgement.

'I _shall find out the true intentions of this village...'_

A fleshy tentacle rose out from the covers, aiming for the bedside candle.

 _'Should what the mushroom girl said be true, and these monsters reveal their true nature...'_

The tentacle wrapped around the flame, dousing it.

 _'I will **burn** this place to **ash**.'_


	4. The Quest For Sustenance: Part 2

Brian felt like things were going his way for once.

His first foreign encounter was a success, got an incredible nights sleep, and best of all: everybody loves him!

The only downside is that he's a woman.

A fucking slug woman.

Which basically downsizes all of the pros; his apparently overly attractive body being the reason for the mass infatuation received from the village's denizens. Clearly this doesn't happen often, considering his centipede friend's choice of words ("Huh. Usually the more 'savage' ones would wanna eat the organs of outsiders like you."), so should he consider himself lucky?

But seriously, how the fuck is he classified as attractive to these creatures? Sure, he may have used Ellen's body as a base for design of the torso and everything above it, but that get's entirely ruined by the FUCKING SLUG BODY SLIVERING BEHIND HIM!

Not to mention feeling 50% of your body _shlick_ across the ground just feels plain _unnerving_.

' _Rememberthegoalrememberthegoalrememberthegoalfindmanfindequipmentgetmushroomsfindmanfi-_ '

"Elizabeth!"

A hand waves across his face.

"H-huh?" The slug looks towards the owner of the arm, finding it to be his succubus 'friend' Whitney, her sky blue eyes voicing worry, "Ah sorry; was lost in thought dear."

"Hmm... well, if you're done," She returned the walking down the dirt path, the disguised Lord in tow, "Lets continue the tour!"

Ah yes, his (unwanted) escort for the day.

After waking up (' _Already wanna go back... so comfyyyy..._ ') and eating the wonderfully prepared breakfast by the innkeep, the frilly little succubus stayed true to her word and showed him around town.

Her insectoid friend was no where near unfortunately; she would have been much more tolerable than the extrovert. When he brought it up, Whitney said she had work, which involved 'hunting down heroes for food'.

Whilst incredibly disgusting ( _food_ food would've been fine, but he knows what this world of nymphomaniacs is like), it's nice to know there's some sort of economy in place for the working class.

At least goes to show there's some semblance of normal society here.

Back to the tour, the first place Brian was dragged to was a clothing store that went by the name of 'Sadeth's Boutique', which was run by - who would've guessed? - a spider girl named Sadeth.

As far as her appearance went... well, Brian's now grateful he ate a _Slug_ woman.

however, her dress was by far the fanciest he'd seen compared to the other bystanders he'd witnessed, practically a wedding dress minus the veil, with a lot more jewellery.

The worst part of this entire venture was definitely going through _thousands_ of dresses a minute to see which one best suited his slug body.

After half a FUCKING hour, he managed to convince the gem hoarder that something simple would suit him just fine; no need to stand out any more than he already does.

Even then it looked god-awfully amazing, fully red with yellow trimmings, the pattern appearing flesh-like to his request (must adhere to the gore theme!). It fell elegantly to the ground.

The only consolation was the large protrusion at the ass to cover the slug tail.

After both succubus and spider gushed over how gorgeous 'she' looked (Brian needs his dick back), Whitney payed for the dress as a gift to Brian, then they both left to continue looking around town.

Nothing else worthy of note to Brian; sure, there was this one café that apparently served a _delectable_ strawberry shortcake, so he absolutely had to try that later.

He'll put that down as objective three.

The rest was unremarkable, simply being random bars, other kinds of stores that sold needless crap, and housing for the citizens.

He'd yet to see an alchemist, so perhaps he should direct the inquiry towards Whitney. He'd much prefer to leave as soon as possible.

"Excuse me, Whitney?" Liz asked in a polite tone.

"Hmm?" She looks towards the slug, attention drawn.

"I hate to be... overbearing, since you've already done so much for me-"

"Oh, you're not at all! Don't be silly!" the succubus instantly denies, "I take pleasure in helping new monsters settle in; something I wish was my job..."

Oh? Aren't succubi supposed to be the perfect 'man-catcher'?

"I would've thought someone of your species and particular nature would make seduction easy."

Whitney giggles nervously in reply, "Wellllll you see... most guys don't take me very seriously, so it's harder to get them fall my Succubus Charm. Plus..." She stops herself, almost afraid of being judged if her shifting her gaze from Liz to the ground is any indication.

"...Plus?"

"N-nevermindit'snotimportant!" Desperate to change the subject it seems, the pink haired girl asks, "A-anyway, what where you gonna ask?"

' _Hmm. Suspicious..._ ', "Right. I was wondering if there would be an alchemist here that could help me; it's my main reason for visiting, actually."

She seemed curious about this, "Oh. Erm, what for?"

The slug woman took on a forlorn look, staring into a random direction, "...I have a... well, I don't think I should worry you about it. It's something very serious I need help with."

"..." She seemed conflicted at first, unsure whether to press further or stand down, before soon sighing, "I see... in that case, we'll get you there as fast as possible!"

' _If she gets to keep secrets, I should as well,_ ', "Very well. I deeply appreciate everything you have done for me today Whitney," She did a full 90-degree bow in respect, "Thank you."

"A-ah! It's fine, it's fine!" She didn't seem to expect the praise, rubbing her left horn in nervousness, "C'mon, I actually know her; she's more of a doctor than an alchemist though, but does know how to make potions."

Liz chuckled in reply, "It's almost like you're friends with everyone."

"Hehe, well, almost I guess!"

Brian was internally smiling; Salamander and little Granberia appear to not be one-of-a-kind.

Ah well, it can only go down from here.

* * *

 ***KNOCK* *KNOCK* *KNOCK***

"She should be ready any minute!"

Liz sighed at Whitney's answer, looking out from the hill they stood upon towards the village below.

The apothecary's home was vastly different in location compared to the rest of the town, as well as disconnected from all the hustle and bustle. Whilst this wouldn't be good for anyone in a hurry for a doctor, Brian could appreciate the scenery; no noise, no people, just relaxing amongst nature.

Clearly this medicine maker had good taste.

The house itself didn't really differ from the rest however, still maintaining the distinctly Victorian aspect, with the only differences being no windows, and a large symbol of a green cross with a black snake surrounding it above the door; odd design, but it got the point across.

' _Heal or Die,_ ' It read underneath. Charming.

Whilst she may be a doctor, all Brian need's is a good mortar and pestle for grinding up the mushrooms, and possibly some flasks for easier handling and drinking.

Sure, whilst he mostly gained his energy from mashed-up vicious mushrooms in a powder, distilled in water made it easier on the throat.

Soon enough, a muffled " _Come in!_ " voiced out from the door, eliciting Whitney to open the front door.

To Brian's surprise, it was incredibly clean in here.

many wooden cabinets were strewn along the walls, their glass panels showcasing various different mixtures that were labelled very neatly. Candlesticks lit up the place as a substitute for the lack of sunlight, with a tiny chandelier hanging up in the centre of the room. The front desk held the same contents as the cabinets, but you'd be an idiot to assume so; Brian could instantly take note of the increase in quality compared to the bottles along the walls. Most likely for safer keeping, he supposed. There was also a square-shaped table to the right of the desk, which held equipment such as weights and scales, for accurately measuring ingredients, as well as a mortar and pestle, used in grinding and crushing ingredients into proper mixtures.

Brian smiled; he hoped he could own an establishment such as this one day, helping people whilst enjoying his work. Is that not the dream of everyone?

"Hmph, atleast _someone here_ has fine taste."

Ah yes, how could Brian have not noticed her sooner? Guess he got too enamoured.

Behind the counter was, unexpectedly, a wolf monster, black-furred ears sticking out from behind short tufts of black hair. Glaring red eyes met Whitney's (who was very adamant in looking at anywhere but the woman), and to add even more to her anomalous appearance, she wore no fancy dress. Instead, the wolf wore a black tank top with thick cargo shorts, the swishing of black fur behind her indicating a tail. The arms held even more thick black fur with claws, which begged to question of how she was able to handle equipment properly.

Breaking the disguised Lord out of his thoughts, Whitney replied with a nervous sigh, "Sorryyyyy, the scent of this place is just... eww..."

"I wouldn't expect a ditsy little demon to understand my passion. Anyway," She curiously turned to look at Liz, "Who's your friend?"

Before the succubus could answer, the redhead spoke up first with a gentle smile, "My name is Elizabeth, dear; a High Slug specifica-"

"SLUG?!" the wolf interrupted in anger, as Liz frowned in disappointment.

' _Guess there would be racists amongst monsters._ '

However, Instead of being immediately forced out of the store, She then resumed a more ferocious glare towards the distressed succubus, "You should have WARNED ME before hand so I could get the water-proof carpet out!"

"I-I-I forgot! Sorry!"

The black haired woman merely ' _tsk'd_ ' in response, "Wait here and DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING! Fucking moronic retarded cocksu..." She murmured to herself whilst walking beyond the door behind the counter, most likely an area for supplies and living quarters.

'Liz' didn't seem to appreciate the comment, even if Brian found it funny.

"She's rather rude; you say she's your _friend_?"

Whitney brushed it off however, not seeming the least bit distraught, "Oh, that's just how she is with everyone. You get used to it..."

Liz hummed in acknowledgement, "She also seems quite the ' _clean freak_ '."

"O-oh, yeah she deffo is. Try to bear with it, please? She just likes things to be in order!"

Liz giggled, "Oh there's nothing to worry about, dear; I respect such care of one's workplace."

She seemed to quietly sigh in relief, "That's good to hear, most people I bring judge her too quickl-"

* **BOOM** *

"Eep!" the succubi jumped slightly at the deafening bang of the backdoor being thrown open.

And out of the door, came the Wolf woman carrying a large rolled-up tile shaped carpet in one arm, with a mop and bucket in the other. No visible strain on her arms either; strong.

Ignoring the two visitors presence, she left the cleaning appliances in a corner of the room for later use, then let the carpet roll-out in front of the desk, before taking her position behind it like you would expect of a store clerk.

"Aight, now slither forward Miss."

And so Liz did, the distinct smooth feeling of the carpet on his soles inciting a sudden shiver. Whitney was about to follow when-

"Don't you have your next shift soon?" the wolf reminded, "It's best you get lunch now beforehand."

"Ah! you're right..." she turned towards the slug with an apologetic look, "You know where to go now, right? Don't need my help?"

' _SHUTTHEFUCKUPIMPERFECTLYCAPABLE_ ', "O-oh yes, I'll be just fine. Thanks for your assistance again, dear," he bowed.

The pinkette giggled nervously, "Enough of the bowing! seeya guys!"

Then she ran out of the store - nearly slipping over due to the slug mucus - with a half-hearted wave from the wolf and a " _Bye!_ " from Liz.

Now that the distraction is gone, Brian can finally get what he came here for; his basic alchemy starter kit.

But first, basic pleasantries.

"I don't think I got your na-"

"Samantha. Sam, for short," the black haired woman squinted her eyes at her customer, "And I must say, I find you quite peculiar _Elizabeth_."

"You know about me already?"

"Word gets around fast, despite how isolated I may appear; a lone, beautiful High Slug, naked and unknown appearing out of nowhere. That's what a customer of mine told me," She leaned over the desk, towering over Liz by at least a foot, "And I don't know if the others have been able to tell, but from the way you carry yourself - tense, preparing for any sudden hostile movement, darting your eyes around any hiding spots that an enemy could be - it suggests experience and power."

Shit, she was able to gather all that from an encounter that's lasted less than a minute?! Brian knew, she was clearly not any ordinary doctor.

As if to add to that thought, Sam's eyes glowed a dangerous amount, making them seem more ruby-like, "So tell me, why have you come here? For free _men_? To satisfy a your _bloodlust_? Or perhaps... you're genuinely lost. Either way, your answer will decide whether I serve you or not."

Sure, it may have sounded like a simple 'denial-of-service', but Brian knew that he needed to choose his words carefully. He didn't want to start a slaughter if he could help it; he made a promise after all.

' _Ok ok, this'll be easy. Just gotta give something with a sprinkle of truths mixed in._ '

Liz chuckled without emotion, looking to the floor, "I guess you found me out, yes? Well, if you can already tell I'm not just some simple traveller, there's no point in hiding it."

he then looked up to directly look the wolf in the eyes with a small frown - need to look convincing.

"My mother, like any monster, used a man for all he was worth and gave birth to me. She was a powerful High Slug, and hoped I could reach the same level of strength as her," he noticed that Sam began to look sympathetic, as though she could relate to his 'situation'.

Liz continued, "She taught me all she knew - hand-to-hand, swords, glaives, bows, you name it, I know how to use it. She respected my tenacity to learn, but I could tell she never truly loved me. It was more for continuing her own lineage than raising a child," he clenched a fist on the desk, "And then... it happened."

"It?" the wolf asked.

"Yes... it was discovered that I was born with a 'birth defect' as she put it, a rare illness that requires a regular intake of a hard to find mushroom," Sam seemed to finally get where this was going, judging by the the lowering of her gaze, "without this medicine, I begin to... 'rot' I guess you could say. Brain activity lowers, motor functions become incredibly strenuous, and my body itself..." Liz stopped there, and judging from the lack of response, was all that was needed.

After a while, the black haired woman spoke up, "Lemme guess; you were thrown out, called 'worthless' and told to make it on your own," She then looked up at Liz, a serious expression on her face, "And now you come to me, seeking medicine."

"...Basically, yes."

...

...

...

"...Your eyes show no lies. Very well, you truly need help don't you?"

Liz sighed in relief, "Yes, thank you. Although, it does boggle my mind..."

Sam gave a half-smile in return, "Seeing a wolf, something normally considered to be a brutal, savage beast, working at an apothecary?"

The slug returned a warm chuckle in kind, "Indeed; it must be hard working about with bottles and the like with claws."

"Hmph. Well, you told your story, it's only fair I tell you mine," She began searching through draws behind the desk whilst continuing, "It's not too dissimilar from yours actually; my mother wanted me to get stronger to follow in the pack's footsteps, However, I wanted to heal people rather than kill."

"Ah. I assume she and... the rest of your family didn't appreciate that?"

She gave out a cold snort over the light shuffling from the drawers, "Not in the slightest. Eventually, they got fed up of my constant stubbornness to refuse to join any hunts, so they kicked me to the curb and left me to fend for myself," a tiny smirk drew forth, "Good thing I still remembered my training, you wouldn't believe the amount of times I nearly got eaten by a roper or dragged deep under by a worm. And eventually," She threw an empty arm outwards, gesturing to her shop, "Managed to get to Lady's Village, secure myself some land and now? Living the dream."

Brian internally was on a high; someone he could relate to in this fucking place.

"I'm proud of you."

Sam looked up in confusion, "Hmm?"

Liz merely smiled, "You've done well for yourself despite your poor past; I respect that kind of determination, it's quite inspirational."

The wolf blushed slightly at the unexpected praise, nervously looking back into her drawers, "Th-thanks, I guess... anyway," She stopped her search as she began to put on some special looking grey gloves, clearly designed to compensate for lack of proper grip in her claws, with smooth rubber finger tips and strong elastic straps that wrapped around her wrists, keeping them from falling off.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, pretty neat huh?" she showed them off with pride, "Specially made by Enrika; their specially forged mythril coating on the inside of the fingers prevents my claws from piercing through, incredibly helpful."

"Enrika? Who are they?" Whilst there were much higher quality metals that existed, Sam clearly held this 'Enrika' up to a high standard, so maybe it would be worth it to know about them.

"Ah, that's right, you wouldn't know. They're a very hidden monster village deep in the forests of the Ilias continent. Honestly surprised they haven't been all killed yet..."

Ah yes, the part of the world where most of these 'Ilias worshippers' are concentrated. Best not to go there, not as a _slug_ at least.

He should be thankful he's not encountered this Goddess yet. She's bound to notice his presence sooner or later, and then he will fucking die.

Fuck, rapist monsters and a psycho Goddess who wants to destroy them all and all humans who consort with them - according to Salamander at least. Maybe she's not so bad? Can only hope.

"So, what were those mushrooms you wanted?" Sam interrupted his thoughts, gesturing towards the vast array of bottles lining the walls, "If it exists, I will most likely have it."

Brian doubted it, but that's not why he came here anyway.

"Oh it's fine, all I really need is a mortar, pestle and... about 20 flasks. I'm able to make it myself."

The wolf seemed to raise a brow at this, "You doubt my skill?"

"No it's nothing like that, I just... well, I know you won't have them."

Judging from her look of concentration, Sam did not seem deterred, "Describe them to me."

"Well, they have sort of a greyish-blue stalk - always look like they're about to topple over - with a crimson-red cap sporting spots the same colour as the stalk."

After Liz gave his answer, the wolf monster seemed to be in deep thought for a few seconds, before looking back to the slug, "Huh, guess you're right."

Didn't even need to check through her stock to see. Clearly dedicated to the job.

"Well fine, if you know where these things grow, take these here," She gestured to the table at her side, a mortar and pestle lying idle on it, "I'll go get some spare flasks."

"How much?"

"Hmph, normally it'd be 41 gold in total, but since you've been so nice compared to my usual 'patronage'... I'll make it free. Just this once." She smiled before entering the back room to retrieve Liz's requested bottles.

' _Lovely woman,_ ' Brian thinks internally. After getting past her suspicions, they had such a pleasant conversation!

Ellen's lessons on 'proper etiquette' are really paying off. Without her, he'd have probably just destroyed the entire village trying to find this sailor and alchemist equipment.

He fucking owes her for everything.

For showing him the beauty of nature.

For showing him how to make friends.

For showing him why kids are the most amazing things to grace the earth we walk on.

For stopping him from becoming a true monster.

Fuck! Stop reminiscing brain, not the fucking fuck fuck time fuck.

Anyway, the wolf's done now judging from the approaching footsteps, get back into the miiiiiind of Elizabeeeeeeeth...

* **BOOM** *

Out from the door comes Sam, carrying a cloth sack of - judging by the clinking of glass - dozens of flasks, as well as a smaller bag in her other hand.

"Aight, be careful with this; it's fragile!" She teases whilst handing the bag of bottles to Liz, "And the other one contains corks for the bottles, its big enough to fit in your mortar and pestle too if you wanna put 'em in."

Liz was grateful for the free equipment, "Thank you very much, Sam. I am in your debt," He finished with a bow.

"I'll hold you up to that then. Where you gonna go now?" She asked as the slug began putting in the grinding equipment into the cork bag.

"Well, I was thinking of visiting the Manor, it's the last building I've not been to yet. Do you know if this Cassandra accepts visitors?" She smiled, although it didn't seem to warm up the sudden cold tension that developed.

Sam was stiff, her expression unreadable as she remained still for a few seconds before asking, "Tell me, Liz."

"Yes?"

"What do you think of... humans?"

Crap. It feels like he walked into another test, and based on the answer, would either ruin or develop their new friendship.

Brian personally hated them, but knew that not _allllllll_ of the were bad. generally though, the vast majority he deemed unworthy of their lives.

They were cruel.

They were selfish.

They were fucking _murderers_.

However, what would Elizabeth say?

...What would _Ellen_ say?

"...I know that at times, they can be especially evil, even towards their own kind," He began, "But I am not so presumptuous as to think that _all_ human beings are like that. To me, they are no different from monsters. They can love, as we can. They can mourn, as we can. And they _kill_ , as _we_ do. They hate us because we pose a threat to them on a daily basis, whilst we hate them for killing us in the name of their Goddess. All in all, it is our failure to understand each other that leads to this relationship, so no, I do not hate them, but I pity them, as well as us."

...

...

...

"...Hmhmhmhm..." the wolf finally broke the tense silence with a light chuckle, inciting a sigh from Liz, "You really are one of a kind, aint'cha?"

"Erm... thanks?" Liz was still confused, what brought this up anyway?

"Now, I just wanted to make sure you were... trustworthy. You see..." She leaned towards the slug's head, "...There's sort of a 'civil war' going on at the moment."

"...Eh?" That just made things even more confusing.

Sam seemed to expect this, "Yeah, I know you haven't exactly seen any 'bloodshed' yet, but it's definitely gonna reach that point if nothing is done soon. You've surely noticed the animosity in the air whilst travelling about, right?"

It was true, everything felt heated whilst walking around town with Whitney, and whilst the succubus chose to cheerfully ignore it, it was hard not to notice the glares everyone was shooting at each other every possible millisecond.

Brian was curious, he wanted to hear more about this.

Liz nodded, "Please elaborate."

The wolf nodded back before beginning, "Ok so...

"Firstly, there's the ones like you and me, who'd rather get along with the humans, live peacefully amongst them, etcetera. I mean, it's working in other places like Port Natalia and Yamatai Village, so there's a chance here too. They mostly consist of those like Whitney, who'd rather not kill the men. Whether it be due to respect for humanity or not wanting to 'waste the men' by killing, they want co-existence.

"And then, there's the others, who'd rather see humanity burn and that their only use is as a resource. There's not much else to say about them really, just that they mainly consist of predator-like monsters, such as insectoids, who can barely conceal their bloodlust."

"Hmm..." Seems like a rather shitty situation; wars in general are never good, but civil wars? your own home becomes the war-zone.

"And I assume this Cassandra supports the 'human-eaters'?"

"You guess right," She sighs, "That _bitch_ is the sole reason there hasn't been a revolt yet; she's simply too strong. I've once seen her melt a Minotaur with her own _flesh_. Not to mention she is the ruler of this accursed place, able to enforce her disgusting policies from the comforts of her own manor. Makes me _sick_!" the wolf slams a fist onto the table in rage.

' _Interesting, feel like she's stealing my style though,_ ', "So there is no way to stop her? It sounds like it will forever remain this way."

"Well... there is one way, but like I said, no one is strong enough to-"

"Tell me."

They stared at each other for a while, before she conceded with a sigh.

"Look, I can tell you're powerful, but don't go overestimating yourself. She once was able to fight the previous Monster Lord to a near standstill, a feat unmatched by many."

"It is but simple curiosity, dear. Please."

"Hmph. Basically... there's this tradition amongst the monster world - called the Queen's Crowning - where a monster of the same species as the queen is able to challenge them to a fight to the death, and if they win, are able to become queen themselves. Now, since Lady's Village is rather variant in it's monster types, anyone of any species would be able to challenge Cassandra."

Huh. Not too dissimilar from Terraria - the Slimes have the same process.

No one has ever managed to beat Simon, something his friend takes great pride in.

"But won't they just be able to refuse the challenge?"

"Yeah sure I guess, but it'd greatly damage their pride, as well as respect from their followers. Monsters value power above all else, and by not accepting the Queen's Crowning, it's essentially like saying ' _I'm too weak compared to this challenger_ '."

"So, like conceding defeat?"

"Basically, yeah."

"Hmm..." Oh what valuable information! He could simultaneously save this village - putting them in his debt - and obtain the man needed for his mushroom-y reward. Only one slight problem...

' _I DON'T WANNA BE A FUCKING RULER!_ ' Not only is he generally incapable of fulfilling the role, but he'd have to remain in this disgusting mucus-excreting slug body for longer than he'd ever want.

Fuck that shit.

Ah well, if the men are the most important resource, then they would most likely be held in the most guarded place - the manor!

He gets this sailor and he gets to visit this hopefully beautiful looking place.

Two Eater-of-Souls in one bullet.

That's the saying, right?

"Well, I thank you for the exposition, Sam. I'll be sure to repay you in full eventually," Liz bowed.

"Hmph, don't fret about it. You'll probs see me again soon anyway, gonna meet Whits for food at a café this afternoon," She waved lazily, "It's called _Tulip's_ if you wanna find us."

"I'll tr-... oh," Once making it past the door frame, he seemed to finally notice what her slug body was doing to the poor floorboards.

Sam noticed this and was already retrieving the mop and bucket from earlier, "Haaaaah, it's fine it's fine..."

Liz chuckled apologetically, "Bye!" Then closed the door, began to trail back towards the town.

Once she was far enough away from the house, the disguised Lord stopped, her eyes suddenly becoming yellow with black slits.

' **COME.** '

And come something did, in the form of a large red chest, covered in bloody veins and a large blue eyeball above the lock. It bounced over towards the Lord at high speeds from a nearby collection of shrubbery, coming to a stop directly in front of him.

This was the true form of Brian's handbag, a Mimic, which was demonstrated by the large metallic teeth jutting out irregularly between the lid and the base, as it opened up to reveal a long slimy red tongue, dangling it out as if waiting for Brian to deposit something on it.

And that he did, placing the bags containing his purchases on the tongue, before the chest swallowed them whole, making an audible ' _gulp_ '.

' **HIDE AND FOLLOW.** '

And that it did, not before giving an affectionate lick along his body's face (' _gross..._ ') and returned to where it came from.

And with that settled, as well as wiping the slobber off of his face, Brian resumed his trek towards the manor.

The Crimson Lord may not have a plan yet, but he did know one thing.

The queen would be dethroned before he left.

' _I'll show her who's the **true master of flesh.**_ '

* * *

The manor, like Sam's apothecary shop, was isolated from the rest of the village, although this time less with distance more due to a large stone fence filled with hedgerows.

There was an iron bar gate, however it was open as much as possible, so it seems they don't mind visitors.

Brian felt enraptured as he was walking through the front garden: fountains dotted the vast grassy plain in a symmetrical orientation, with hedges shaped like cones, cuboids, some even in stars! It was like a natural art gallery.

And that doesn't even live up to the manor itself - Incredibly fancy, almost looking like a building of religious prayer what with the stained glass depicting various species of monsters, although all of them likened to insectoids. Obvious favouritism much?

Whilst the greatest building in the village may look amazing, It was nothing compared to kingdoms and castles he'd seen in Terraria.

Although, it is a _liiiiittle_ unfair to compare a village to a massive 'fuck-off' fortress.

Who cares. Inhale shit, Cassandra.

Once he finally reached the large wooden double doors at the entrance to the home, a single, long brown-haired woman suddenly exited the building, her appearance suggesting she was a maid.

instead of being startled at his uninvited appearance, the maid appeared overjoyed, tears forming at the brim of her amber eyes.

' _What_ _? Were they expecting me?_ '

Liz wasn't able to get a word out because the maid beat him to it.

"OH THANK THE LORD you came I felt like she was gonna kill me if you didn't turn up youhavenoideahowhappyiampleasepleasecomeinmakeyourselfathome!" The woman linked hands with the slug's and before she knew it, was whisked away into the manor.

She continued yammering on at the speed of light about stuff that was barely intelligible, all the while speed-walking through the elegant white halls of the manor.

' _ALRIGHT ENOUGH OF THIS SHIT'_

"C-calm down dear!" Liz tugged back to make her stop moving, only succeeding in make the maid fall back onto him. Luckily, the slug caught her in time, "Oh dear, I'm sorry!"

"I-it's fine! Sorry f-for being too forceful... it's just-" She stood back up and faced towards Liz, in an attempt to look intimidating, "-The Mistress was expecting you half an hour ago! If you hadn't turned up, she would've had my head!"

"Really? I don't particularly know what you're talking about..."

Now the maid seemed exasperated. Clearly that was the wrong answer.

"Don't tell me you FORGOT! You definitely signed up for this job given out by the Mistress herself - you should feel lucky!"

"I-I did?"

The maid sighed heatedly, "Yeeeeesss, there was specifically the mark of a High Slug's mucus on the job form, although I don't remember the name on it..." After a pause, she then dumbly asked, "What is your name?"

Internally, Brian was dying inside.

' _SHIT OF COURSE THE BITCH I ATE GOT ME INTO THIS FUCK!_ ', he sighed, ' _Whateverjustgowithit you're a fucking immortal evil_ god _Brian chill the FUCK OUT and see where it goes._ '

"E-Elizabeth," This entire situation was absurd.

Even so, the maid seemed to run out of shits to give, "Arrghh whatever! As long as you're good with children it'll be fine... hopefully."

They then resumed their walk/slither through the mansion, remaining in silence for a minute, before Brian decided to interrogate after the maid had fully calmed down.

"So, I assume that I am to be babysitting?"

She replied kindly, "Of course! The Mistress' daughter, Emily, will be pleased to meet you. Her mother..." She gained a regretful look, "...Doesn't have much time for her at all, so it's either us maids - who are almost always busy - or hiring a babysitter."

"Hmm. How do you know that I am of acceptable service? I'm sure there are much better options out there."

"Well, first of all, you are the only applicant," She replied with a dejected tone, "It's quite hard to find a monster that is good with children AND willing to help the Mistress' daughter, as I'm sure you're aware."

"Yes, the divide between the people I've heard of."

"Mhm," They seemed to be approaching a spruce door, distinctive in appearance by the golden name plate on it that read ' _Emily's room! 3'_ in big black letters.

"Well, worry not dear," Liz incited a curious look from his escort, "I happen to be decently experienced with children enough to know how to treat them; smother your worries," She finished with a bright smile, getting the maid to do one in return.

"Thank you, Miss."

Once they reached the door, the brown haired woman lightly knocked on the door twice on it.

"Emily, your babysitter is here!"

A few seconds of silence, then...

" _Come in!_ "

The maid entered first, clearly to see if everything was decent, before gesturing Liz to enter, whilst standing to the side for space.

As the slug slithered in, an otherworldly amount of stuffed dolls filled her vision, varying in species, size and general style of art. What the fuck.

A small bed with a shiny texture on the blankets was in the corner of the room, being lit up by the large bay window surrounded by the dolls, along with a chandelier safely out of reach for a child.

Speaking of the child, she appeared to be what they called of the 'scylla' genes, her large yellow tentacle hairs waving about as if a mind of their own. Strangely enough, they were tied into pigtails. Instead of legs, she had fleshy little red tentacles supporting her body-weight.

She was dressed how one would expect of a noble; an all baby blue dress that went down to where her knees would be, with white colouring the trims.

Her deep blue eyes stared at her own in apprehension, undoubtedly nervous in front of her guests.

If Brian had to guess, she looks around ten to twelve years old.

Deciding to be the one to hit off their new relationship, Liz took up his most mother-like tone and put on a warm smile whilst kneeling more to the little one's height.

"Hello there Emily, my name's Elizabeth. I'll be your babysitter for today; hope we can have lots of fun together!"

It seemed to work, as the fear washed away from her face, and smiled back in earnest.

"Y-yeah, me too Miss Elizabeth!"

Ah, children.

At least he can enjoy himself a bit before killing her mother.

...That doesn't sound very good out of context.


End file.
